A Performance Test Completion Report documents the test results that will be used to verify and ensure that a product or system meets its performance requirements. The following article describes the key elements that should be contained within such report.
1. Executive Summary
This section should provide a short, concise, and optimistic overview of the performance testing that has been performed. It should capture the reader’s attention to give them an interest in reading more about it.
2. Conclusions and Recommendations
In the Conclusions and Recommendations section, you should present your interpretation of the results given in the test results section by drawing conclusions from your analysis of those results and then make recommendations based on your analysis.
3. Terminology
Describe any names that exist in the document that may need an explanation.
4. References
Detail any reference documents used in producing this report. For example, the Performance Test Plan.
5. Stakeholders
Detail the approvals and reviewers of the document. For instance, the resources who will approve the performance testing, review the results, and agree on the implementation.
6. Measurable Success Criteria
In this section outline what the success criteria was to ensure the requirements were met. This generally takes the form of target response times for each type of transaction.
(See the table below for an example of this)
Assumptions
Detail any assumptions.
Scope
Describe what was in scope and what was not in scope during the performance testing.
System Under Test
Describe the system under test and include the system functionality, software architecture, hardware, and network. You should also state what type of development it is. Is it in-house, off-the-shelf or a contracted development? An example of a contracted development would be something that has been developed by another organisation.
Performance Test Approach
Describe the performance test approach taken. State how many test cycles were performed. In this section you should also define the volumetric that was used to perform the performance testing. An example of this would be the number of transactions per hour.
Transaction Description
List the transactions that you have performance tested.
(see the table below for an example of this)
Test Results
In this section breakdown the results by the different types of tests you have performed.
a) Baseline Test Results
b) Describe the Test
(see the table below for an example of this)
i. Detail all the transaction response times
Identify poorly performing transactions that should be investigated. In the example below, the search transaction is just outside the target response based on the measurable success criteria outlined in Section 7.
ii. Monitoring results
Depending on what you have monitored, display relevant graphs you have collected and state any observations you have identified. For example, memory utilisation.
- Peak Load Test Results
- Stress Test Results
In conclusion, this is not an exhaustive list but all the above elements should be considered when producing a Performance Test Completion Report.
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