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| Testing Software Performance |
| Scott Barber shares his thoughts, opinions, ideas, innovations and endorsements around software testing in general, and specifically testing software performance, that he can't get past the editors of his monthly column and articles. |
| Language: English |
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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 32 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 61718 |
| Visitors Out: 984 |
| Total Visitors Out: 984 |
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| Identity crisis or delusions of grandeur? |
| 2008-05-05 10:24:47 |
In this month's installment of "Peak Performance" I discuss the frequently erroneous and often grandeous titles software testers have on their business cards or in their e-mail SIGs. Identity crisis or delusions of grandeur?
--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Vice President & Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
www.perftestplus.com
www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org
"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."...
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| Brazil and Uruguay and Conferences, Oh my! |
| 2008-04-01 23:13:02 |
This morning I arrived in Brazil. For the next 2 weeks I’ll be doing some consulting, some training, and speaking at 3 conferences spanning Brazil and Uruguay.
The first is Performance Summit 2008 hosted by Dell Brazil. The local organization team, including my friends and top-notch performance testers Carlos Panato and Walter Munstock, have already gone well out of their way to make me feel at home. Thanks guys!...
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| Conference of the Association for Software Testing - CAST08 |
| 2008-02-19 12:08:48 |
CALL FOR PAPERS
The 3rd Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2008
http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/CAST2008
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 14-16, 2008
Beyond the Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Software Testing
Keynote Presentation by Gerald M. Weinberg
The Association for Software Testing is pleased to announce its third annual conference (CAST 2008), to be held July 14-16. The meeting will be held in Toronto, Canada, a city which features enormous diversity in culture, businesses, educational institutions, and the arts. Toronto is the perfect location for a conference on this year’s theme: "Beyond the Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Software Testing"....
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| WOPR 10 & Pre-WOPR Event |
| 2008-02-19 12:02:45 |
WOPR10: Call For Proposals (CFP)
Theme: How can we teach performance testing?
Every aspect of performance testing from problem awareness to systematic modeling, performance testing experiments, result analysis to problem reporting and getting the darn system actually working involves a rich an complex set of interrelated skills coupled with a blend of detailed technical knowledge and rich context sensitivity. What are these skills? How can we teach them?
WOPR10 will explore the topic of teaching performance testing with seasoned professionals and expert performance testers as well as teachers and instructional designers.
See the complete CFP on the WOPR Web Page
Experimental Methods in Teaching Performance Testing (Pre-WOPR Event)
In the past year, the number of publications and training courses available related to testing the performance of software systems has increased dramatically. Over the last 7 or so years, most training courses related to perfor...
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| Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications book |
| 2007-12-17 23:08:21 |
Some time back, I blogged about a book I’d been significantly contributing to being available as a free .pdf download. (see the entry here)
Well, the book quietly appeared in “dead tree format†(as Stuart Moncrieff put it in his blog post about the book) a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been getting light heartedly scolded by some of my friends and readers for not making a big announcement, so here’s my “big announcement.â€
Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications
by: J.D. Meier, Scott Barber, Carlos Farre, Prashant Bansode, and Dennis Rea is now available on Amazon....
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| Sapient Testing: Smart Stuff for Career Software Testers |
| 2007-12-17 22:45:27 |
December Issue of the Association for Software Testing Newsletter Now Available
I am proud to have my newest article published in the AST Newsletter, now titled Sapient Testing Magazine. You can download the December issue of Sapient Testing Magazine here....
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| Performance Summit 2008, CFP |
| 2007-11-22 11:50:58 |
PERFORMANCE SUMMIT 2008
March 20 - 21, 2008, Porto Alegre (Brazil)
Sponsored by: DELL- Brazil / PUCRS
SUBJECT OF THE CONFERENCE
Globalization pushes information technology to its limits. Also it makes companies more and more dependent on their IT resources, so speed and scalability became a critical factor for the companies to be successful. Performance Engineering (PE) came to help developing faster and more scalable applications by applying performance testing end engineering practices. Performance Engineering can be a complex area, demanding very skilled and experienced professionals. Also, this is a relatively new area in the business world, so there are plenty of room for development of techniques, practices and people. This summit has 2 main goals: to introduce performance engineering to the IT community, in order to increase the number of professionals in the discipline, and to share the best practices in the Performance engineering discipline, methods to tuning applications, find memory leaks, bottlenecks, etc. ...
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| From The Web: "Noncertified IT pros earn more..." |
| 2007-10-23 09:48:40 |
Stop the presses! Can it be true? The industry wants effective, qualified, multi-dimensional people who are capable of understanding business drivers & risk mitigation and applying that in a sapient way to their job as opposed to folks who paid someone to teach them how to pass a multiple-choice exam?!? Amazing!
Noncertified IT pros earn more than certified counterparts: survey...
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| From the Mailbox: Software Development: Art or Science? |
| 2007-10-18 14:47:12 |
Here’s a question that I didn’t realize I had much to say about until I read my own response.
The Question:
Software Development: Is it an art or a science? An age old question I know, but what do you think and why?
My Response:
I refer to new software development as a scientific art. I've seen some maintenance work, platform porting, etc. that has been almost entirely mechanical -- I'm not sure what that counts as, but I certainly didn't witness anything "artistic"....
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| From the Mailbox: What makes software "good" or "bad"? |
| 2007-10-18 14:34:52 |
I was asked the question below (lightly edited for anonymity, clarity, and length) today and found it intriguing, so I thought I'd post it here.
The Question:
This is an attempt to understand how (and why) users, practitioners, and professionals perceive the difference between a good software product and a bad software product, specifically released software products....
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| Workshop on Teaching Software Testing, Jan18-20 '08 |
| 2007-10-18 14:12:52 |
I am honored to be co-hosting WTST this year along with Cem Kaner and Rebecca Fiedler. This year we're focusing on how to develop testing skills via online courses. For those of you who follow what I'm up to, you'll know that this topic is near and dear to my heart. I anticipate that it will be a great workshop. Read below to see if it's something that you might also be interested in:
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This year’s Workshop on Teaching Software Testing (WTST) will be January 18-20 in Melbourne, Florida.
WTST is concerned with the practical aspects of teaching university-caliber software testing courses to academic or commercial students.
This year, we are particularly interested in teaching testing online. How can we help students develop testing skills and foster higher-order thinking in online courses?...
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| Scott Barber Interviewed by Empirix QA Zone |
| 2007-10-14 23:17:08 |
About 6 months after Marina Gil Santamaria approached me about being interviewed for Empirix’s QA website, our schedules finally matched up well enough to get it done. You can read the interview at Empirix QAZone.
--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Vice President & Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
www.perftestplus.com
www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org
"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."...
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| Gentleman, Start Your Engines!!! |
| 2007-09-17 10:54:37 |
My most recent column, inspired by a surprise trip to the Brickyard 400, has just been posted on TechTarget in which I discuss the distinction between "delivery" and "done" when it comes to testing the performance of software systems.
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Countless hours of development are now in the past. Testing indicates that everything is ready for the big day. The whole team is on hand, and the world is watching. It's the moment of truth; time to find out if all of the hard work is going to pay off. Anticipation builds until the command is given…...
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| Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications |
| 2007-08-30 15:01:11 |
We released the final version of our patterns & practices Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications. This guide provides an end-to-end approach for implementing performance testing. Whether you're new to performance testing or looking for ways to improve your current performance-testing approach, you will gain insights that you can tailor to your specific scenarios. The main purpose of the guide is to be a relatively stable backdrop to capture, consolidate and share a methodology for performance testing. Even though the topics addressed apply to other types of applications, we focused on explaining from a Web application perspective to maintain consistency and to be relevant to the majority of our anticipated readers.
Download the guide
Read the guide online
Stay tuned for a link to purchase the print version due to be available in early Oct....
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| Classify Performance Tests: IVECTRAS |
| 2007-08-25 17:45:02 |
This is the second installment of a currently unknown number of posts about heuristics and mnemonics I find valuable when teaching and conducting performance testing.
Other posts about performance testing heuristics and mnemonics are:
Installment 1 - Performance Testing Core Principles: CCD IS EARI
Installment 3 - Model Workloads for Performance Testing: FIBLOTS
I have struggled for over 7 years now with first figuring out and then trying to explain all the different "types" of performance tests. You know the ones:
Performance Test
Load Test
Stress Test
Spike Test
Endurance Test
Reliability Test
Component Test
Configuration Test
{insert your favorite word} Test
Well, I finally have an alternative.
IVECTRAS...
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| Performance Testing Core Principles: CCD IS EARI |
| 2007-08-25 17:44:30 |
This is the first installment of a currently unknown number of posts about heuristics and mnemonics I find valuable when teaching and conducting performance testing.
Other posts about performance testing heuristics and mnemonics are:
Installment 2 - Classify Performance Tests: IVECTRAS
Installment 3 - Model Workloads for Performance Testing: FIBLOTS
There is not a "one-size-fits-most" approach to performance testing, but I have become rather convinced that there are nine principles that are (almost always) applied (or at least actively considered) in successful performance testing projects. I remember those principles by remembering:
CCD IS EARI...
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| Model Workloads for Performance Testing: FIBLOTS |
| 2007-08-25 17:44:04 |
This is the third installment of a currently unknown number of posts about heuristics and mnemonics I find valuable when teaching and conducting performance testing.
Other posts about performance testing heuristics and mnemonics are:
Installment 1 - Performance Testing Core Principles: CCD IS EARI
Installment 2 - Classify Performance Tests: IVECTRAS
For years, I have championed the use of production logs to create workload models for performance testing. During the same period, I've been researching and experimenting with methods to quickly create "good enough" workload models without empirical data that increase the value of the performance tests. I recently realized that these two ideas are actually complimentary, not exclusionary, and that with or without empirical usage data from production logs, I do the same thing, I:
FIBLOTS....
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| WOPR Public Meeting: April 12, 2007, Boston |
| 2007-08-09 22:11:28 |
1st Workshop on Performance and Reliability (WOPR) Public Meeting
April 12, 2007 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Paradigm Shifts in Performance Testing: Evolution or Revolution?
New Tools = Changing Paradigm.
With all the high powered commercial tools available, Open Source tools still have a role.
Its not performance or functional testing, but combined performance and functional testing.
Agile Performance Testing is different.
Is performance testing gaining importance and relevance in IT?
Is there increased collaboration with Operations? Is it resulting in better tuning & capacity planning?...
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| Resumes in Context |
| 2007-08-09 15:52:37 |
On a forum related to James Bach's Rapid Software Testing On-line (Beta) class (which I highly recommend! A few more technical issues to work out and it should be ready for prime-time) another student (Anne Marie Martin, from Atlanta) posted the following (lightly edited):
Here's something I struggle with though, and would love to hear thoughts on. I have about 11 years experience in testing, and try to invest time in learning more about testing, and learning more in general that can help me with testing - such as the things we've all been discussing about philosophy and learning and Weinberg and a hundred other things that have tickled my brain during our discussions and threads that made my 'to do' list of things to read or explore or learn from....
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| What Best Practices really are. -- CIO Article |
| 2007-08-09 15:52:21 |
Of all the places I expected to find an article supporting the fact that Best Practices is nothing more than a square on someone's buzz-word bingo card, CIO wasn't it.
The highlights are these...
Using celebs for endorsements has become such best practice that everyone does it. So what is best practice about it? Nothing. The phrase is simply a demonstration of how cliched business language dresses up the concept of copying something someone else has done. And when lots of companies copy the copier, it becomes dull, intellectually stagnant and offers no competitive advantage. It's just a me-too strategy executed by the cynical, the lazy, or the lazy cynics....
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| Hourly Rant... |
| 2007-08-09 08:53:32 |
I just finished answering a question posted on LinkedIn by Esther Schindler in researching a article she is working on for CIO.com
She asks (summarized):
"There's just one question to answer: If you could get the (client) boss(es) to understand JUST ONE THING about computer consulting and contracting, what would it be?
Or, to put the same question another way: If you were given a single wish of something to change (about a current or past client) what would it be?"...
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| Software Testing Lessons from my Children |
| 2007-08-09 08:53:17 |
My most recent column has just been posted on TechTarget in which I discuss some of the lessons I‘ve learned from my children about software testing.
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I had planned an entirely different topic for this month, but I‘m sitting down to write this on Father‘s Day while my sons (Nicholas, age 8, and Taylor, age 4) are napping, and realizing that I‘ve never written about what I have learned about testing from my boys....
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| Happy About Global Software Test Automation |
| 2007-08-05 23:37:05 |
I just posted this review for Hung Nguyen's new book on Amazon. All you testers and test managers out there, slip this book under your boss's door when they aren't looking and watch how quickly the company starts embracing and respecting software testing!
***
Happy About Global Software Test Automation: A Discussion of Software Testing for Executives is an absolute must read for any executive in a company that develops, customizes or implements software....
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| Five Questions with Jon Bach, by the Braidy Tester |
| 2007-08-05 23:33:24 |
I met Jon about 3 years ago. It was a funny story, actually. I was at STAREast talking with a bunch of folks at the bar after the last presentation of the day. Some guy came over and introduced himself to the person sitting next to me.
I heard his name and I stopped, mid-word, stood up excitedly, started shaking his hand and talking a mile-a- minute...
(Scott) "OhMyGod! Jon Bach! I'mSoExcitedToMeetYou! IReadYourBookAnd... I'm sorry, my name is Scott Barber, I've done some work with your brother..."...
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| Announcing CAST 2007 |
| 2007-08-05 16:23:11 |
I attend a lot of conferences. I enjoy different conferences for different reasons. That said, there is only one conference that I automatically budget my own money and my own time to attend every time....
CAST - the annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing
If you haven't already registered I recommend you do it soon - seats are going fast, and there are only a limited number available. If you really care about good testing, teaching testing, advancing testing, conferring with thought leaders, sharing ideas and getting your questions answered, CAST is the place to be. Every talk includes *more* time for questions and answers than for the presentation, dramatically increasing your ability to learn the details you need to apply or internalize new ideas....
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| Performance Testing Guide Beta 1 is Available |
| 2007-08-05 16:20:03 |
Some of you have been wondering what I've been working on recently... well, here's the answer. I've been working with a crack MS team to create tool, process, vendor, religion, diet and gender agnostic guidance around the most common activities and challenges related to performance testing web applications in commercially driven environments. We've finally achieved a version that we believe is "good/done enough" to let all you testers out there shred it and provide your feedback. Beta 1 means what you think it does. There are known issues, unknown issues, and all that other stuff. That said, the other members of the team and I all, personally and collectively, stand behind the concepts in the guide (though in some places we are still trying to figure out the best way to express those concepts).
The bottom line is this. If you do, might do, have ever done, or might be interested in Performance Testing, we'd love to have your thoughts/feedback. We're working on short ...
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| Custom Performance Testing Search Engine |
| 2007-03-22 22:29:58 |
About 24 hours ago, Google Co-op publicly released the ability for folks to make their own CSE's (Custom Search Engines). From the site:
Harness the power of Google search
Create a highly specialized Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. Place it on your website and, using our AdSense for Search program, make money from the resulting traffic.
See examples of how a Custom Search Engine works....
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| Peak Performance Column Gets a New Home |
| 2007-02-17 01:22:52 |
Today marks the launch of a new Software Quality/Testing website that doubles as the new home for the Peak Performance monthly column.
SearchSoftwareQuality.com by TechTarget.
Not only is this site the new home for the Peak Performance column, but the TechTarget folks have recruited Mike Kelly, Karen Johnson and myself as the site's founding software testing experts....
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| New Performance Testing Guidance Avaliable |
| 2007-02-12 23:53:55 |
I am involved in Microsoft's Patterns & Practices Performance Testing Guidance project. We have reached a critical mass with regards to our "mostly final" content and have made that content publicly available at the following URL http://www.codeplex.com/PerfTesting
The team includes some of the original members from Improving .NET Application Performance as well as some new faces. We're tackling various flavors of performance testing (stress, load, capacity) as well as how to bake performance testing into your life cycle. We're also tackling how to use VS.NET 2005 for effective performance testing....
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| Established Monthly Column Seeks New Home |
| 2006-11-13 20:40:27 |
Starting in January 2007, Software Test and Performance Magazine will no longer be running Peak Performance as its lead column. This is due to the owners and editors of the magazine wanting to rotate columnists with expertise in various areas of the reader's interest. I will continue writing several full-length articles per year for them and participating heavily with their conference.
So, while there is no bad blood between the folks at ST&P and myself, I am now the proud author of a homeless column that I have come to really enjoy writing....
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