{"id":12742,"date":"2018-08-02T19:25:52","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T13:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cigniti.com\/blog\/?p=12742"},"modified":"2018-08-07T12:39:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T07:09:00","slug":"software-performance-testing-practices-for-digital-transformation-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigniti.com\/blog\/software-performance-testing-practices-for-digital-transformation-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Software Performance Testing practices for your Digital Transformation strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"
As per the latest report from IDC<\/a>\u00a0on the global smartphone shipment for the second quarter of 2018, Chinese smartphone maker\u00a0Huawei\u00a0has surpassed\u00a0Apple. Now, there could be multiple reasons supporting this shift in preferences. But the most important driver is customer experience resulting in alternate choices.<\/p>\n Over the years, enterprises of all shapes and sizes have been working towards enhancing customer\/user experience by improving the performance of the device or of the application on the device. Digital Transformation makes performance validation all the more critical. That\u2019s where Performance Testing has been making strides.<\/p>\n James Bach rightly mentions, \u201cPretty good testing is easy to do (that\u2019s partly why some people like to say \u2018testing is dead\u2019\u2013 they think testing isn\u2019t needed as a special focus because they note that anyone can find at least some bugs some of the time). Excellent testing is quite\u00a0hard<\/em>\u00a0to do.\u201d<\/p>\n So is the case with Performance Testing, which can be diagnostic in nature, but in the \u2018digitally\u2019 engaged scenario, it needs to be goal-based and result-oriented. It is critical to devise a focussed Performance Testing strategy for the digital era that is much more customer-oriented and dynamic.<\/p>\n The ground rules of Digital Transformation state that customer experience is paramount and indispensable. Enterprises cannot miss a fraction of this objective while pursuing their quest to achieve business excellence. Even the new and emerging technologies that have been adopted by IT folks incline towards faster turnaround time and quick-fix solutions for ensuring enhanced user experience.<\/p>\n In the context of Digital Transformation, here is an interesting take on the topic, George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy, mentions, \u201cWhen digital transformation is done right, it\u2019s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.\u201d<\/p>\n Performance Testing has a crucial role to play while all the new technologies and methodologies get introduced and rolled in. User experience remains at the core of every digital transformation strategy. Ultimately, it\u2019s not just about checking the load and the corresponding performance, it\u2019s most critically about ensuring flawless experience throughout the lifecycle of the application.<\/p>\n The Performance Testing strategy can be very much aligned with an organization\u2019s business objectives. However, in the backdrop of the Digital Transformation initiatives, there are few quintessential practices that you must consider for Performance Testing. It will make your strategy more focussed and close to your business objectives.<\/p>\n The Performance meter for your digital initiatives must keep on spinning at a consistent pace. Hence, these are some base rules that you can consider while fine tuning your Application\u2019s Performance chart.<\/p>\n Let Innovation intrude!<\/strong><\/p>\n This might sound vague and generic, but staying accessible for innovative solutions is the ground rule of Digital Transformation. This applies for your Performance Testing strategy as well. Your new-age applications are expected to deliver new experiences like never before. Then why can\u2019t your performance testing strategy deviate?<\/p>\n Hence, while sketching the scope of your software testing strategy it is important to keep the window for offbeat testing practices open. This will not only provide the expected outcome, but also expose some unexpected performance glitch. Delivering the minimum will never help you to ensure flawless performance.<\/p>\n Define the reference point for your Performance Testing strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n Generally, with performance testing, the baseline refers back to factors impacting user experience. It is important that you define these factors rather than making them sound generic and ambiguous. For instance, while performance\/load testing an e-commerce application your performance parameters will be different, when compared to the factors while dealing with an online gaming application.<\/p>\n The reference points will make your strategy tangible and measurable. Working with defined objectives will help deliver the expected and sometimes the unexpected results as well.<\/p>\n Keep your strategy achievable and ashore<\/strong><\/p>\n While planning your strategy you must try to keep it real and not go overboard by throwing your application through high traffic zones and scenarios that could be unrealistic. Your test environment must depict actual devices and configurations that are trending in the user environment. It must consider traffic issues that are expected, with variations that can provide a real-world scenario.<\/p>\n Consider the traffic that might come to your application from diverse mobile devices, web browsers, operating systems, and across varying network condition. This will keep your tests attainable and steady. Building unrealistic target points might not necessarily help. Moreover, you would be in a better position to compare your measured performance with your perceived performance parameters.<\/p>\n Make Performance Testing continuous<\/strong><\/p>\n Methodologies and approaches such as DevOps and Agile are being adopted to make testing cycles shorter and continuous. Performance tests cannot be done in isolation, as in a digital testing environment the issues need to get fixed on a continuous basis and even in a LIVE set-up. It is recommended to bring in performance testing within the fold of your development cycle. It will make your strategy dynamic and much more relevant.<\/p>\n Building real-time solutions is absolutely necessary when it comes to Performance Testing. Whether it works or doesn\u2019t work ultimately, is a question to be answered, but making it effectively foolproof is something that a good thought-through strategy can do for you.<\/p>\n Cigniti\u2019s Performance Engineering & Testing teams have extensive experience in providing cutting edge services to global clients. Cigniti\u2019s Performance Testing expertise spans a wide range of applications including client-server, web, distributed, mobile, cloud databases, high volume transaction systems, and highly complex applications.<\/p>\nPerformance Testing and User Experience, a crucial connect!<\/h2>\n
Setting the Performance pace for your Digital Transformation initiatives<\/h2>\n