Preparation of the System under Test

The preparation of the system under test is just as important as that of the injectors.

A Testing Environment

To avoid wasting time finding bugs that are not related to performance, it is important to have a stable application that has been thoroughly tested.

If the load tests are written just before production deployment, there will be little time left for the tests.

This means that if the application has not been functionally and technically tested (for example, with unit and integration testing), every bug detected during the load tests will jeopardize the planned date for the start of production and under good conditions.

Load testing (even if it can be automated with continuous integration) should not be used to replace Non Regression testing.

Follow the Testing Pyramid:

Figure 5.10: The testing pyramid

An Environment Consistent with the Target

Ideally, you should have an environment that is equivalent to the production environment.

By equivalent...