Life, the Universe and SAP Performance Testing

It’s happened to us so many times. In the initial meeting held with the client, we ask about success criteria
of KPIs.

“Tell us what it does when you put load on it.“ they say. And so off we go.

Dutifully we gather metrics on use, write scripts to emulate load, and kick off the test. Understandably they are curious about the result and so we tell them.

“Five seconds average response,” we say. Excited faces look at us.

“Is that good?” they ask.

It’s a difficult question. If it’s a BI system generating month end reports, that’s a pretty quick response. If it’s a production system producing one pallet a second – that needs a label – it’s a disaster. Like the famous answer to life, the universe and everything, it depends on what the real question you’re asking is. And so to find out the answer to whether a test has passed you need to ask the people who know what they need: the business. And it is probably better to find out before the test starts.