Oooo those graphs look pretty!

How to manage performance testing when you are not a technical

specialist.

Tony Simms - TMF

October 27th 09

AgendaBackground to the NSPCC Helplines programme

Procurement

Execution

Results

Open discussion

The Background

Childline was receiving around 2,500 telephone calls a day of which only 60% were actually being answered.

We wanted to;

increase the number of calls we received

increase the number of calls we answered

increase the ways children could contact us

improve our IT infrastructure

introduce new web counselling services

Multimedia Counsellors

Multiple locations

PDCPDC SDCSDC Two brand new data centres

Web and voice basesCounselling services

• No volume data for web traffic

• Good volume data for voice

• New data centres in the process of being built

• The business users insisting on evidence we can support the service before we switch it on

Procurement

Approach to Supplier Selection

No in house tools or skill set

Attended an exhibition and approached smaller performanceVendors and specialist

The name Facilta kept being mentioned

Got Facilita in to ‘pitch’

Approach to Supplier Selection

Facilita were not geared up to do the performance testing of our voice system, and recommended Empirix

Our telephony supplier recommended Empirix

Got Empirix in to ‘pitch’

Appointed Facilita and Empirix to do the work.

Possible Discussion Points

What are the questions that need to be asked of a performance test consultancy

What are the key indicators that the supplier understands performance testing and how it applied to your system

The pros and cons of not going to full competitive tender

All suppliers are liars.’ how can we trust the salesmen

Execution

Preparation

Information on environment

Information on applications

Information (or not) on demographics

Scripting time

Management

Totally hands off

Immediate notification of serious issues

Direct access to developers and architects

Test – correct – test - report

Possible Discussion Points

What added value could have been gained by being more involved in the execution

How much technical knowledge is required to validate the performance test approach

Is performance testing as simple as test and report, or should there be significant ‘tinker time’

Should your performance testers also be your system tuners

Results

End Of Test ReportingBoth companies produced reports.

One more verbal, one more graphical

Reports highlighted issues

The issues needed multiple parties to analyse

The results were not always clear cut

Both needed more time than we could give

Possible Discussion Points

What good is a report form a technical expert if you don’t have the skill set needed to understand it

How much should you expect the testers to contribute to the discussion about the solution

What do you do when the technical experts disagree

What do you do when there is no industry standard tocompare your results with

Any Questions?