Performance Testing Requirement Gathering Questionnaire

Performance Requirement Gathering

Introduction

Before starting performance testing, we need to understand what basic information is required to kick start the performance test. Here in this blog I will share the basic performance requirement gathering questionnaire which can be shared with a client for getting relevant information to initiate the project. This is very important as clear and complete requirements are mandatory for successful performance testing.

What we need to start the performance testing?

Few questions flash in mind immediately whenever an application is given for performance testing. These questions are as following:

•  What is the type of application and its architecture?
•  What are the known current as well as previous performance bottlenecks?
•  Which application scenarios to be tested?
•  What will be the workload model?
•  What are the performance goals?

Application Technology and Architecture

Application type (web, desktop or mobile) and its development technology information are always crucial to make a decision on appropriate performance testing tool. There are many performance testing tools can be used according to application under test (AUT). If required, application architecture diagram can be requested:

Sample Questionnaire

Sl no.	Particulars
General Information
1	Please specify the type of application you wish to Performance test. Eg: Web,
	Type of mobile app Web/Native/Hybrid
2	What are the supported Mobile Operating Systems? Please mention the version of supported OS. Eg: Android / iOS / Blackberry / Windows
3	In which technology/platform the application is developed? E.g. Java, HTML5, J2EE, .Net, PHP
4	Specify the client to first server communication (protocol) Eg: o HTTPS o Web Service o Citrix o Mobile Application – HTTP(s) o Others – Please specify
5	Type of Web application (Browser based / Client Server / Others)
	o If others, pls. specify:
	o  Application accessibility : (Intranet / Internet / Both)
6	Application security feature: (Encryption/Signature/OTP/TFA/Others) o If others, please specify
	o Is the application end to end encrypted? (Client to server traffic sent in encrypted format or plain text)
	o Can the security feature be disabled during performance testing activity?
7	Can same user login to the application from multiple mobile devices?
8	Will separate test environment be provided to do a performance test run?
9	Please specify if there is any preference on Performance Testing Tools.? Eg: LoadRunner, Visual Studio, Jmeter
10	Do you allow usage of open source tools, if proved compatible with the application? E.g. Jmeter
11	Performance monitoring: During execution, can your Dev/IT team continuously monitor the application servers?
12	What is the current project lead time for performance testing activities? I.e. starting and completion date
13	Is the functional testing completed? Are all functional testing defects fixed?
14	Is there any known issue(s) in this application? E.g. o Memory lock o Unexpected growth in daily visitors o More response time which leads to time out error
15	Can the Load Injector machine(s) be placed in the same subnet as the 1st Tier of the application: (Yes / No) o If No, pls. suggest an alternative to obtain a minimum of 100 Mbps connectivity between the load injector & 1st Tier: o If Yes, pls. specify whether  load injector  m/c will be available 24 * 7 OR only for particular time period in the day:
Architectural Information
16	Which data base is used? E.g. Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server
17	Which Application server is running with the system? E.g. Tomcat, IIS, WebSphere
18	How is the targeted application look like? (Please specify all servers and network appliances configurations and their interaction mechanism) o LAN/WAN details o Terminal servers o Bandwidth link o Load Balancing techniques o Batch Transactions o Disaster recovery
19	Please spevify the Application Architecture : (2 Tier / 3 Tier / More than 3 Tier)
	o Pls. share the network architecture. This is required to understand the application flow. If not possible (due to company policy), pls. share the raw diagrammatic view of the application flow
	o Type of servers involved (pls. give details with version): (eg. Web -> IIS 6.0; App -> Web sphere app. server 6.1; Database  -> Oracle 10g)
20	During Test execution will there be any type of firewall involved between any tier (incl. client m/c & 1st Tier): (Yes / No)
21	Please specify availability of following team during performance testing for any assistance required o Application (including DB for creating Test data etc.) o Network o Any third-party support (if involved)
22	Is this application integrated with any third-party software? If yes, will this be isolated during performance testing?
23	Arrangements for performance testing environment and its scale compared to the Production Environment. (e.g 1/2 of Prod or 2/3 of Prod or if 1:1 is feasible?)
Business Information
24	Please specify the type of performance testing you wish to conduct? o Load Test – Normal and Peak load o Stress Test
25	Please specify if anything other than load and stress is required. o SOAK/Endurance o Spike
26	What is the expected Peak/concurrent user load for testing?
27	"Business process (Scenario): Number of critical business processes to be considered for performance testing. (The number of processes needs to be identified based on 80 – 20 rule i.e. using 20% of critical scenarios 80% of load needs to be stimulated)"
28	List out the scenarios considered for performance testing?
29	Is any File upload activity involved : (Yes / No)
30	If selected scenarios require some unique inputs then these should be specified. E.g. Credit Card, SSN etc.
31	What are the goals/SLA of the performance testing activity? o Response Time (E.g. search should not take more than 3 seconds)
	o User load (E.g. application should be able to handle 500 concurrent users)
	o Transaction Rate (E.g. application must be able to handle 50 transactions per second)
	o Hardware Resource Utilization (E.g. CPU utilization on application server should not exceed 70%)
	o Pass percentage of scenarios
32	What is the expected throughput of the application? E.g. 1000 Financial transaction per minute
33	User Roles involved: o For the Key scenarios identified for testing, is any user role required (Maker / Checker)? o If user roles involved, then is Landing screen different for user roles?
34	Is it required to generate load from multiple geographical regions? If yes, which?
35	If required, is it possible to create dummy data for testing directly from backend? (Yes / No)
36	If required, can the application be made available or accessed from Testhouse for conducting a feasibility study or for a POC?
37	What is the preferred engagement model? Onsite/Offshore/Hybrid (Onsire-Offshore)
38	Are there any time constraints for running the test? E.g. the server can only be accessed outside business hours; server can only be accesses from 7 pm – 8 am

Hope this helps. :)

For any queries, please comment :)