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Why You Need to Performance Test Your Systems

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Over the years, many of us in IT have contemplated questions like, “Will the application meet user performance expectations?” and, “How will the application respond under the anticipated workload?” It’s always an uncomfortable moment when your CIO asks if your new application will perform as designed, and you can’t answer the question with certainty. This uncomfortable moment can be avoided through the use of Performance Testing.

The IFG team has a broad base of experience that can help your organization avoid this scenario. In our experience, a performance testing effort normally includes three activities:

  1. Determining the performance characteristic the application must meet;
  2. Determining the workload that the system will experience and must support; and
  3. Executing a test to simulate this workload.

We assist organizations by helping to define the performance characteristics and breakdown the workload patterns, and then help develop the test cases and scripts to execute the performance test.

The real challenge is determining the performance characteristics and the appropriate workload for the test.

IFG has experience with a variety of effective tools from jMeter to HP LoadRunner to CA BlazeMeter. With numerous good tools available in the market, choosing a testing tool is the easy part. The challenge that organizations face is determining the performance characteristics and the appropriate workload for the test. The IFG team has the practical experience to work with you to answer this question and to assist with the successful performance testing of your applications.


Ray Birchler is an IFG Senior Enterprise and System Architect. Get more of his articles, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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