Work Load medeling in Performance Testing

Importance of Workload Modeling

Your performance test results will be more accurate if you manage to properly simulate your production system parameters in your test. It’s the planning phase where the performance analyst makes sure that the information of all the parameters of AUT has been acquired in order to accurately simulate them in the performance test. Identifying AUT workload model is one of the most important parts of the planning activity. Workload model provides the information of what type of user actions will be tested under load, what will be the business scenarios for all the users and what will be users’ distribution on every scenario. This information helps the performance testing teams in many ways such as:

• Performance Scenarios Identification: The fundamental activity of the Workload model is to understand the application and identify its performance scenarios.
• Performance Test SLAs: Performance testing teams translate AUT non-functional requirements into performance test SLAs through workload model.
• Makes Communication Easier: Workload model makes it easy for the performance testing teams to communicate the AUT performance scenarios and users’ distribution on them with all the application stakeholders.
• Test Data Preparation: Workload model helps in identifying the type and amount of test data which is always required before the working on the tool is started.
• Required Number of Load Injectors: You always require a lot of infrastructures to successfully conduct the performance testing activity. Incorrect results are produced if the application is tested with inadequate infrastructure. Normally users load is simulated from multiple machines (i.e. load injectors) for accurate testing which is also identified from the Workload model