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Terminologies

Use the "Terminology" section to understand some common terms related to
performance-testing objectives so that you can articulate these terms correctly in the
context of your project.

Use the "Approach for Determining Performance-Testing Objectives" section to get
an overview of the approach, and as a quick reference guide for you and your team.

Use the remaining sections to gain a more detailed understanding of identifying and
capturing performance-testing objectives, capturing or estimating resource usage
targets and thresholds

, and

capturing or estimating resource budgets or allocations.

Use the "Case Studies" section to walk through real-life examples of identifying
performance-testing objectives.

Terminology

This chapter uses the following terms.

Term / Concept

Description

Performance-testing
objectives

Performance-testing objectives refer to data collected through
the process of performance testing that is anticipated to have
value in determining or improving the quality of the product.
However, these objectives are not necessarily quantitative or
directly related to a performance requirement, goal, or stated
quality of service (QoS) specification.

Performance
objectives

Performance objectives are usually specified in terms of
response times, throughput (transactions per second), and
resource-utilization levels and typically focus on metrics that
can be directly related to user satisfaction.

Performance targets

Performance targets are the desired values for the metrics
identified for your project under a particular set of conditions,
usually specified in terms of response time, throughput, and
resource-utilization levels. Resource-utilization levels include
the amount of processor capacity, memory, disk input/output
(I/O), and network I/O that your application consumes.
Performance targets typically equate to project goals.

Performance
thresholds

Performance thresholds are the maximum acceptable values for
the metrics identified for your project, usually specified in terms
of response time, throughput (transactions per second), and
resource-utilization levels. Resource-utilization levels include
the amount of processor capacity, memory, disk I/O, and
network I/O that your application consumes. Performance
thresholds typically equate to requirements.

Performance budgets Performance budgets (sometimes known as performance

allocations) are constraints placed on developers regarding
allowable resource consumption for their component.