Workshop  | Bret Pettichord

 
Third Annual Austin Workshop on Test Automation (AWTA)

April 20 -21, 2002 - Austin, Texas

Realism in Load Testing

Workshop participants. first row: Karen Johnson, Bret Pettichord; second row: Dawn Haynes, Cem Kaner, Nancy Landau, Marini Ballard, Ross Collard, Steve Splaine, Mark Harding, Barton Layne, Chris Agruss, Jamie Mitchell; third row: Giri Vijayaraghavan, Phillip Joung; not pictured: Doug Hoffman, Michael Wethington.

Call for Participation

Join us as we review and contribute to open-source tools for the functional testing of web-based applications. Help us understand the strengths and weaknesses of existing open-source tools and work with us to improve them, and make them easier to understand and adopt. The workshop will consist of presentations, discussions and actually sitting down and writing code, documentation, and examples. We seek participation from developers of open-source test tools, testers with experience using them, and people who want to learn more about how they can contribute to open-source efforts.

Workshop Goals

·        What is good enough/realistic enough load testing?

·        How do we determine what is realistic?

·        How do we simulate what is realistic?

·        What makes load testing different from other forms of testing?

Questions Raised During the Workshop

The following questions represent only some of the questions raised and discussed during the two day workshop. In asking questions, we sometimes discover the answers we need or the answers we must work with based what is needed and what is feasible for the project and for the client/company.

  • What is the best approach to ramping up the number of users on a server?
  • How to introduce reality about resource tradeoffs and commitments to management?
  • What does a tester or test manager need to know before spending money on automated load testing tools?
  • How can network realism be achieved for website load testing?
  • What QA can do with a failed load test?
  • Who are the team members (roles) with specific, in depth knowledge needed?
  • What are the statistics applied to load/performance testing?

What Will Happen at the Workshop

The workshop will be organized as a moderated discussion, following the format of the Los Altos Workshop on Software Testing .

Participants will be selected to present particular techniques and experiences of using test interfaces. The workshop will explore the techniques and the conditions that favor or disfavor the technique.

Expenses

Participants are responsible for own travel and lodging. The workshop expenses, including some meals, will be covered by the workshop sponsors.

Contributions

We expect all participants to contribute to the workshop in one way or another. Past AWTA workshops focused on presentations with active engagement with the audience.

Attending the Workshop

Acceptance to this workshop was based on a letter or email stating interest in attending as well as an indication of experience. Since the workshops are focused on active participation, it was expected that all participants would have relevant experiences and participate actively throughout the workshop.

Send your letters to mailto:bret@pettichord.com  for information on future workshops.

Location

The workshop was located at the Homewood Suites in Austin, Texas

Time Frame

The formal program was held from 9am-5pm on both April 20 -21, 2002.

All participants attend during these times. An optional dinner was held on Friday evening, opened to family and guests.  Dinner and evening conversations took place on Saturday.

Organizers

Bret Pettichord was the host of the workshop and is the founder of the Austin Workshops on Test Automation. He is an independent consultant and specializing in testing and test automation.  He is co-author of Lessons Learned in Software Testing. His website is http://www.pettichord.com/.

Cem Kaner was the moderator of the workshop and is a Professor of Computer Science at Florida Tech. He also directs the Center for Software Testing Education and Research which creates, collects and distributes open-source materials for teaching software testing. He is lead author of Testing Computer Software, Lessons Learned in Software Testing, and Bad Software. His website is http://www.kaner.com/.

Giri Vijayaraghavan was the scribe for the workshop and is currently a Software Test Engineer with Texas Instruments Inc. Before he joined Texas Instruments, Giri was a Master's student in Computer Science at Florida Institute of Technology and he worked on his research thesis under Dr. Cem Kaner on a "Taxonomy of e-commerce risks and failures". Giri can be reached at giriv@ti.com.



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