When determining how Silk Performer can test various applications there are a lot of options to consider. Testing Possibilities As you can see from the diagram below there are quite a few options and sometimes finding the right option for your application is not as straight forward as you might think. Most customers, regardless of their license type will only ever use a fraction of Silk Performers capabilities and the purpose of this article is to unlock the full potential for your consideration and hopefully highlight the true value Silk Performer offers your organisation. Does Silk Performer Support My Application? One of the most common questions we get asked in Supportline is whether Silk Performer can be used to test a particular application. While we could provide a yes or no answer there are some common caveats which must be considered. The list of applications Silk Performer can test is much longer than those which it can’t test but when we are asked if Silk Performer is capable of testing an application we need to consider what aspect of an application needs to be tested; whether the solution is suitable for the tester’s skill level, whether the solution is realistic and whether the customer’s license type allows for the proposed solution. Our Response So we follow a proven methodology of answering these types of questions: What piece of the application is to be tested? What testing options are available for that part of the application? Is the proposed solution within the customer’s current licensing capability? Is the proposed solution within the tester's capability? Case Study As a case study, let’s consider testing Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Supportline have been asked whether Silk Performer supports Microsoft Dynamics on multiple occasions. The answer is that while Silk Performer does list support for some applications by name, in the majority of cases it doesn’t actually support individual applications by name in this way; but it's ability to test various applications, like Dynamics, relies on it's support for the protocols and technologies those applications are built on. What piece of Dynamics is to be tested? Microsoft Dynamics has a web interface, a thick client\Outlook plugin, a mobile application, and various other connectors and integrations including SharePoint and Active Directory. Dynamics is a client-server application which uses IIS and ASP.net and SQL Server for the most part but also exposes a host of Web Service API’s and has a .Net Framework SDK which gives developers the ability to create their own integrations and interactions. So you first must know what part of this you want to test. What testing options are available for that part of the application? If testing the web front end in a browser then naturally Silk Performers HTTP protocol support is best or if the web front end uses some of the newer JavaScript frameworks and utilizes a lot of advanced services and objects then browser driven load testing would be a better fit. However if we exclude the easy to test web interface for a moment and consider what is left, what would the options for testing be? Web service testing, test drivers, .Net Framework testing, direct database testing, GUI Level testing etc. are all possibilities however each has it's own complexities. Is the proposed solution within the customer’s current licensing capability? As you can see from the following diagram, each testing methodology falls within specific license types. If we feel GUI Level testing is the best approach we would always recommend that regardless of the customer's license type and while we would always be happy to upsell a license it is not always within customers' budgets to do so. Therefore it's important to try and find solutions which exist within the current licensing constraints. Highlighted in bold are the various approaches discussed for testing Dynamics. Is the proposed solution within the customer’s capability? The majority of Silk Performer features are extremely easy to use however there are a few testing methodologies which are inherently developer solutions. Another barrier is that often testers do not know enough about the application they intend to test to make certain approaches feasible. An example is writing test drivers for a .Net Framework solution. This option would only be possible if the tester has a good level of developer experience to write the necessary code in Visual Studio and it's not just generic developer experience they need but also good knowledge of the application under test, the application methods to invoke, what parameters the methods require, and how to achieve a suitably realistic testing scenario. Determining the Best Testing Approach for Your Application As a tester grows in experience and confidence it opens up new avenues for testing. While it may not be necessary for some customers to move into the more advanced realms of performance testing it doesn't mean that their current scripts cannot be enhanced by exploring other ways of interacting with their application. For example, if you normally test your banking application at a web interface level then you are used to getting performance metrics on a whole system basis - end to end performance for everything between client and server. Why not investigate whether your application server has a web service API you can run some tests against - this allows you to test the server side before the client side is even developed; or try some direct database testing which will show peak performance of your database alone. Alternatively you could just enhance your current scripts to send emails when errors occur or automatically publish results to a web server on test completion. Adding Support for a Particular Application Even with the extensive list of testing approaches Silk Performer is capable of we are constantly looking for features which can be added to enhance the product. This is where it's important for our customers to make their wishes known and tell us what their needs are. Naturally we cannot add support for everything but every request is considered. Most ideas, except those which are totally unrealistic, are added to the product backlog and those of greatest importance are added to the product roadmap. So why not get in touch today and tell us what you want to see in the product. Conclusion Silk Performer is a highly capable application performance testing tool whose long list of testing abilities allows customers to test a huge array of application types. While it can sometimes be difficult to determine how best to test an application, we have the necessary experience in Supportline to expose all the options and organize the possibilities for your consideration. So if you are unsure how to best put Silk Performer to good use do not hesitate to get in touch.
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