Activity 9. Report Results and Archive Data

Even though you are sharing data and preliminary results at the conclusion of each work item, it is important to consolidate results, conduct trend analysis, create stakeholder reports, and do collaborative analysis with developers, architects, and administrators before starting the next performance-testing phase. You should allow at least one day between each phase, though you may need more time as the project nears completion. These short analysis and reporting periods are often where the “big breaks” occur. Reporting every few days keeps the team informed, but note that issuing only summary reports rarely tells the whole story.

Part of the job of the performance tester is to find trends and patterns in the data, which can be a very time-consuming endeavor. It also tends to inspire a re-execution of one or more tests to determine if a pattern really exists, or if a particular test was skewed in some way. Teams are often tempted to skip this step to save time. Do not succumb to that temptation; you might end up with more data more quickly, but if you do not stop to look at the data collectively on a regular basis, you are unlikely to know what that data means until it is too late.