performance-test-planning

Performance Test Planning

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Performance Test Planning tasks - Designing load profiles, capacity planning, SLA validation
• Planning or design - Need guidance on performance testing approaches
• Best practices - Want to follow established patterns and standards

Overview

Performance testing validates that systems meet non-functional requirements under expected and peak loads. Effective planning identifies critical paths, defines realistic load profiles, and establishes measurable success criteria.

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Performance Test Types

Type	Purpose	Load Pattern	Duration
Load Test	Validate expected load	Normal traffic	15-60 min
Stress Test	Find breaking point	Increasing until failure	Until failure
Soak Test	Find memory leaks	Sustained normal load	4-24 hours
Spike Test	Handle sudden bursts	Sharp increase/decrease	10-30 min
Capacity Test	Determine max capacity	Incremental increase	Variable
Scalability Test	Validate horizontal scale	Increasing with resources	Variable

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Load Profile Patterns

Ramp-Up Pattern

Users
  │
100├────────────────────────●
  │                   ●────
  │              ●────
50├         ●────
  │    ●────
  │●────
 0└─────────────────────────►
   0    1    2    3    4    5 min

Spike Pattern

Users
  │         ●
  │        ╱ ╲
500├──────╱   ╲──────
  │     ╱     ╲
  │    ╱       ╲
100├───●         ●───
  │
 0└─────────────────────────►
   0   5   10  15  20 min

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Quick Reference: Metrics Targets

Metric	Target	Critical Threshold
Response Time (p50)	< 100ms	< 200ms
Response Time (p95)	< 200ms	< 500ms
Response Time (p99)	< 500ms	< 1000ms
Throughput	> 1000 RPS	> 500 RPS
Error Rate	< 0.1%	< 1%
CPU Utilization	< 70%	< 90%

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Key Formulas

Little's Law: L = λ × W (Concurrent requests = Arrival rate × Response time)

Throughput: Concurrent Users / Average Response Time

Apdex: (Satisfied + Tolerating/2) / Total

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References

Reference	Content	When to Load
performance-strategy-template.md	Full strategy template, scope, environment, scenarios	Planning performance test strategy
nbomber-examples.md	Basic load test, complex scenarios, data-driven tests	Implementing .NET performance tests
capacity-planning.md	Little's Law, throughput, Apdex, BenchmarkDotNet	Capacity planning calculations

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Integration Points

Inputs from:

• Non-functional requirements → SLA targets
• Architecture documents → Component topology
• test-strategy-planning skill → Test scope

Outputs to:

• CI/CD pipeline → Automated performance gates
• Monitoring systems → Baseline metrics
• Capacity planning → Infrastructure sizing

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Test Scenarios

Scenario 1: Planning performance strategy

Query: "Help me create a performance test plan for our API"

Expected: Skill activates, provides strategy template, guides through objectives and scope

Scenario 2: Implementing load tests

Query: "Show me how to use NBomber for load testing in .NET"

Expected: Skill activates, loads nbomber-examples.md reference, provides code examples

Scenario 3: Capacity planning

Query: "How do I calculate capacity requirements for 10,000 users?"

Expected: Skill activates, loads capacity-planning.md reference, provides formulas and templates

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Last Updated: 2025-12-28

Version History

• v1.1.0 (2025-12-28): Refactored to progressive disclosure - extracted templates/examples to references/
• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release