Scott Barber answered a question on SearchSoftwareQuality.com about how to conduct performance testing without using any tools. He goes on to state that being denied tools is likely a bad idea, but regardless of whether you have great tools (such as BrowserMob) or you have none, there are a lot of areas to focus on in addition to what a load testing tool does:
Now, after saying all of that, I must admit I have found that the vast majority of value that is gained by quality performance testing comes outside of the load-generation tool. Some of my favorite techniques (assuming you are testing websites):
Scott’s first two tips are probably the most important, both of which are discussed in the December 2007 issue of the AST Update magazine (PDF). Definitely check it out, as it discusses how to use Firebug and other tools to drastically cut down the end-user’s response time from the browser. Best of all, you can verify these improvements with BrowserMob!
Good article, but I definitely don’t agree with his:
“hire a bunch of interns method.”
I’ve tried to conduct manual load tests by coordinating people, and it is a total mess that gives erratic results and doesn’t usually perform the exact actions you want. Hire a good toolsmith to write some cursory load generation scripts and you are “much” better off.
Corey – I agree. I think Scott’s points about focussing on the end-user experience and optimizing the HTML construction are a much stronger argument.