Change is the only constant. No doubt. This applies to the performance testing field in a big way. Just 5 years back, the mobile surge was just growing. Today the web traffic has increased almost 20-30 times because of mobile surge. The backend servers and network are still having hiccups to cope up with this surge.
Technology has changed a whole lot. New languages, no-sql databases, etc. are in place. Network devices have changed. Storage devices have changed. Internet is the king of all. So the old ways of doing performance testing may not work any more.
Here are some points that you must remember, when you want to see your app working faster.
1. Do frequent load testing, in dev stage, test stage and pre-production stage. Do not just wait till the rainy day.
2. Performance Testing, Performance Monitoring and Performance Engineering are one stack and pack. Do not stop with just one part.
3. Ensure performance test is carried out within LAN and from Internet/Cloud.
4. If you procure a software product from a vendor, ensure you have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) on performance in place. Usually people forget this.
5. The software product you procure may be from any big branded vendor; it does not matter; brand does not guarantee high performance. So do not get carried away with ''I got the product from the world's top 10 vendor and it will work fast''. This is not true any more.
6. In today's world, it is easy to build software by pulling a few APIs from 3rd parties. But it is hard to ensure performance of the end to end application. Getting the app live is easy, getting the app faster is not that easy.
7. Unless you experience the performance testing and monitoring activity, you will end up procuring more hardware than what is needed. Throwing more boxes is easy, but costly.
8. Never underestimate a small patch to production. It is always a small nail that causes a flat tire on a huge truck that is a million times bigger than the nail
9. In today's world, Performance is one of the key aspects to determine Go or No-Go
10. If you can spend 1 or 2 weeks upfront during the testing stage, to measure performance, you can save a whole lot of money after going live. Most intelligent CIOs and Project Managers yield to delivery pressure, miss to measure performance and repent after going live.
Irrespective of small or medium or big, orgs repeat the same mistakes of ignoring or postponing performance tests. But to our knowledge, everyone of them have paid a heavy price after go-live.
Nagarajan Pichumani is Co-Founder and CEO oF Appedo.
