Microsoft Application Consulting Engineering Team

From Amazon.com - Performance Testing Microsoft .Net Web Applications : Microsoft ACE Team

From Amazon.co.uk - Performance Testing Microsoft .Net Web Applications : Microsoft ACE Team

A review. An Excellent book that fits in well with a wide range of environments. Even if you are not testing in total Microsoft environment this book is required reading.

I approached this book with many prejudices. It was going to be at the wrong level. The prose would be in that folksy "lets tell a story, about my cousin John Boy, stress testing his site in the boondocks" style. Lastly but not least, I was concerned about the "Microsoft" factor. The whole book would be nothing but an advert for Windows, Internet Explorer and the whole .NET adventure.

My prejudices will of course have to wait to be proved right.

The authors are from the Microsoft Application Consulting Engineering (ACE) team. Responsible for performance testing much of Microsoft's extensive online presence.

The style of prose is lean and sparse. Each chapter concentrates on quite distinct areas of performance testing or the applications themselves. After the chapter, you will know why they test, how they test and what they hope to gain. Sprinkled through are serious little vignettes of real world situations. A Contents Listing is available.

The structure of the book is very logical starting with preparations for performance testing. In the early chapters an overview of the .Net framework and web services is woven into the text. Along with the rationale behind performance testing.

Chapter 2 outlines the planning required for performance testing. Essentially this boils down to requirements and measurement. Before stress testing can start, the test team has to establish what is expected of the system. This information can be gleaned from such sources as past web logs and the marketing forecast. Key performance metrics are essential.

The middle of the book is where the meat is. Clean, technically packed, descriptions of how to actually run performance testing. Using an in-house Microsoft tool, the Application Center Test, the nitty-gritty of stress testing .Net on the web, is laid out. As the book progressed the technology becomes more complex.

As well as moving through the testing process, the book moves down through the tiers. Thus Chapter 6 is on the web tier, 7 on managed code. 8 analyses the SQL tier.

Analyzing the SQL tier is a good example. The authors explain indexes, comprehensively enough for the tester. Then they go on to explain how to analyze them using profiling tools. Lastly how to choose the right indexes. More importantly to check that you have the right mix of indexes.

Chapter 9 covers Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA). TCA is Microsofts own method of estimating web application hardware needs. The method defines hardware resources relative to user scenarios.

The authors cite two reasons employing this method. Firstly it is "scientific". Secondly it gives much greater freedom to web application owners to model in a "what if" environment. For instance, what effect will a short intense advertising campaign have the servers?

TCA is the culmination of what the book works towards. Enabling the business to decide how to balance the costs of a web application against improved performance. Of course to reach this stage the organisation has to be working at a very high level of optimizing processes.

The last chapter, takes the user to the cutting edge of performance testing. Here performance modelling is used to predict how the web application will behave. Not only would this be cheaper in the long run [in my opinion] it drives improvements before they are actually needed. ACE use these techniques where calculating and proving an applications TCA is insufficient.

Ahh! My fears about the proprietary nature of this book. The Microsoft factor. Well I have been proved wrong. The book is almost entirely concerned with testing Microsoft environments. And yes, there is a strong feeling of Microsoft is the best.

The authors, however work for Microsoft. They test exclusively in a Microsoft environment. Like it or not, when you visit Microsoft.com, you rarely experience any performance problems. ACE must be doing something right.

Even other companies get a look in. Compuware tools are mentioned as being used extensively n testing .Net.

This book was written by a bunch of men and women, who are obviously at the top of the when it comes to testing .Net.

The information is just what you need to start performance testing, either at the business or execution level.

Highly recommended.