Integrating StressTester™ in the Agile Development Process

StressTester v7.2 - The only performance testing tool to work in the Agile development environment by design

One of the key purposes and benefits of Agile development processes (“Agile”) is that they emphasize working software as the primary measure of progress. To ensure that the current state of the software is working, every iteration includes unit and acceptance testing.

Many organizations report that, following the adoption of Agile, the quality of their released systems has been improved. When talking about ‘quality’ in this respect, the focus is solely on functionality; non-functional quality, and particularly the ability of the application to perform and scale at times of peak usage, is excluded from testing that occurs within iterations.

The main reason for excluding this type of testing is that performance tests have traditionally required weeks to set-up and hence the popular belief is that there is no time for performance testing within an Agile project’s iterations. This has been true for the majority of script-based tools that require expert users not typically found in Agile scrum teams.

This approach relegates testing an application for performance right at the end of the project with the risk the application fails to meet the performance and stability requirements requiring lengthy re-works.

StressTester™ however addresses these issues head-on by removing the necessity for tool experts, by lowering the entry level skill-set necessary to drive the tool and by dramatically reducing test delivery timescales. Using StressTester™ it really is possible to deliver non-functional testing right into the heart of an Agile development process within just a few days.

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Suggested Reading:

Agile Journal September 2010

Integrating Performance Testing into the Agile Development Process

Graham Parsons, CEO Reflective Solutions

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