Tool Mentor:  Creating Performance Test Suites with Rational TestManager

Purpose

This tool mentor describes how to use Rational TestManager to create a performance test suite.

It relates to this Rational Unified Process information:

Overview

A suite shows a hierarchical representation of the user population and workload that you emulate in a performance test. It shows items such as the user groups, the scripts executed by each group, and the number or percentage of virtual testers assigned to each group.

This tool mentor applies to Microsoft® Windows 95/98/2000/NT 4.0 platforms.

Tool Steps

To design automated performance test suites using TestManager, perform the following steps:

1. Create a suite
2. Insert user groups into a suite
3. Insert test scripts into a suite

1.  Create a suite

A suite enables you to run test scripts and, more importantly, to emulate the actions of real users accessing a multi-user application. A suite can be as simple as one virtual tester executing one test script or as complex as thousands of virtual testers executing a variety of test scripts.

You can create a performance suite in one of these ways:

• Using the performance testing suite wizard
• Based on an existing Robot session
• Using a blank performance testing suite

This mentor describes using a blank performance test suite.

To create this suite:

1. Click File > New Suite.
2. Click Blank Performance Testing Suite.

   Refer to the topic titled Creating a New Suite in TestManager online Help.

2.  Insert user groups into a suite

User groups are the basic building block for all performance testing suites. A user group is a collection of virtual testers who perform the same set of activities. All performance testing suites must contain one or more user groups—either fixed or scalable.

In general, scalable user groups allow more flexibility than fixed user groups. With scalable user groups, a single performance test suite can emulate a different number of users in each test run. If your suite contains fixed user groups and you want to runs tests with different numbers of virtual testers, you must modify the number of virtual testers in each user group in the suite at test run-time.

To insert a user group into an open suite:

1. Click Suite > Insert > User Group.
2. Choose between Fixed or Scalable user groups.
3. Set the Number of users (for a fixed user group) or Percentage (for a scalable user group). If the percentage for a scalable user group is less than 100%, another user group must be added (sum total percentage of all user groups must be 100).

3.    Insert test scripts into a suite

From an opened suite, perform the following steps:

1. Select the user groups that are to run the test script.
2. Click Suite > Insert > Test Script.
3. When the Run Properties of Test Script dialog appears, the following properties can be set:

• Test script source – Choose the type of script (GUI, VU, VB, Java) you want to insert.

• Query — Specify the characteristics of scripts you would like to insert into the suite. If a large number of test scripts resides in your test datastore, build a query to show only those scripts that meet certain criteria (created by a certain person, modified since a certain date, and so on).

• Precondition — Select this to specify that successful completion of the test script is a precondition for the remainder of that suite sequence. This means that the test script must complete successfully for subordinate items in the suite sequence to run.

• Iterations — Specify how often to repeat the selected script or scripts.

• Scheduling method — Specify the delay, if any, before the start of the script, or specify other events that trigger the execution of the script.

4. After you have set the properties you want, select the name of the test to insert and click OK.

Note: You cannot mix GUI and VU test scripts in a user group. You can, however, mix other test script types.

   Refer to the following topics in the TestManager online Help:

• Defining Test Scripts
• Running Properties of the Test Script

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