Manage your Performance Test Scripts

  • An ideal script is one that can be recycled against multiple environments without any compelling alterations.
  • It is essential to verify that the script doesn’t contain incorrect or additional URLs. Whichever urls are mentioned should be in correct sequence.
  • Identify all dynamic data (as the response from server) specified in a script and correlate it – This can often be done by making comparisons between two or more recorded scripts.
  • Set criterion for scripts to support dynamic data set – This helps in uniformity to access the same path and seclude cache responses. Interactions are smooth.
  • Use proper checkpoint(s) / assertion(s) for all steps involved in the transaction – Absence of checkpoint might result in better response time when a page is not getting downloaded completely / correctly. Text used for assertion should be either static or should be consistent across all runs / environments. If this is not done properly, scripts maintenance becomes an overhead.
  • Users may close the window but not many log out of the website, so remember to design script accordingly. You should understand that there is a possibility of clearing http session from the cache much sooner than expected, if the user logs out each time.
  • Ensure your performance test tool dominates cookies automatically – If cookies are detected in the testing stage, they might be present in the recorded scripts which ultimately need to be handled exclusively by a script designer with the help of a variable. The use of a variable allows the script to receive a different cookie value during the test, rather than using the recorded value. Note: Cookie substitution is must if the site uses HTTP session cookies from an application server.
  • It is always a positive and productive to double-check the scripts during design phase. Validate it with multiple options – one iteration and one user, multiple iterations and one user and multiple iterations with multiple concurrent users. This will give you the best possible results and every possible solution.
  • For easy troubleshooting and optimization, prioritize building scripts for the primitive paths first.
  • Keep a check on the process time and quickness in the script – Do not target each user’s thinking process at every single step. Opt for tools that can be calculative with the thinking process of users at vast. Make sure that the time value and pacing time value is strategized and approved during performance requirement gathering stage.
  • Organize your work by naming conventions and folders to make work easy and comprehensive. Know the result of each setting and then implement it, it avoids complexity and bridges any misunderstanding of the scripts.
  • The final scripts should be representative of actual user activities. It is not mandatory to create simple or even too focussed scripts until it cannot be avoided.