STARWEST 2009: Performance Engineering: More Than Just Load Testing

Performance testing that is only done at the last minute, just prior to launch, is not the right approach for systems that are highly complex with many opportunities for bottlenecks. Rex Black discusses a different approach-performance engineering-that is far more than performing load testing during the system test. Performance engineering takes a broad look at the environment, platforms, and development processes, and how they affect a system's ability to perform at different load levels on different hardware and networks. Performance engineers use a process to conduct a series of performance tests throughout development and after deployment. This includes performance modeling, unit performance tests, infrastructure tuning, benchmark testing, code profiling, system validation testing, and production support. Learn how to conduct each of these performance engineering activities and the questions you need to ask-early in the project-to identify risks for load, stress, capacity, and reliability.