Creating a reproducible scenario for application performance analysis

When using application performance analysis tools, the first step in analyzing a code problem is to find out what triggers it. This could be a user action, such as clicking on a specific button, or using a certain function, or it could be a more pervasive problem exhibited throughout the application.

To create a reproducible scenario in a production environment:

  1. Contact users who submitted problem reports, and find out exactly what symptoms they experienced, and what they were doing when they experienced the symptoms.
  2. Contact the support person who received the problem report, and other IT personnel who have witnessed the problem.
  3. Use application test cases (although presumably they ran successfully during original testing).
  4. Use a test environment that simulates production environment load levels.
  5. Narrow the trigger down to as few steps as possible.

In a testing or development environment, create a test case (with whatever test tools you may be using) that reproduces the problem. Make the test case as narrow in scope as possible. If you are using Rational® Performance Tester tools, you will be able to use this test while profiling; see Collecting performance data from an application in an automated test environment.

It is important to identify the trigger so you can isolate the problem to a specific part of the application, and limit the amount of performance data collected during the next step. If you profile the entire application, the amount of data collected may be overwhelming.

Terms of use | Feedback
(C) Copyright IBM Corporation 2005. All Rights Reserved.