Performance Test Planning

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Performance Test Planning tasks - Designing load profiles, capacity planning, SLA validation

• Planning or design - Need guidance on performance testing approaches

• Best practices - Want to follow established patterns and standards

Overview

Performance testing validates that systems meet non-functional requirements under expected and peak loads. Effective planning identifies critical paths, defines realistic load profiles, and establishes measurable success criteria.

Performance Test Types

Type Purpose Load Pattern Duration

Load Test Validate expected load Normal traffic 15-60 min

Stress Test Find breaking point Increasing until failure Until failure

Soak Test Find memory leaks Sustained normal load 4-24 hours

Spike Test Handle sudden bursts Sharp increase/decrease 10-30 min

Capacity Test Determine max capacity Incremental increase Variable

Scalability Test Validate horizontal scale Increasing with resources Variable

Load Profile Patterns

Ramp-Up Pattern

Users │ 100├────────────────────────● │ ●──── │ ●──── 50├ ●──── │ ●──── │●──── 0└─────────────────────────► 0 1 2 3 4 5 min

Spike Pattern

Users │ ● │ ╱ ╲ 500├──────╱ ╲────── │ ╱ ╲ │ ╱ ╲ 100├───● ●─── │ 0└─────────────────────────► 0 5 10 15 20 min

Quick Reference: Metrics Targets

Metric Target Critical Threshold

Response Time (p50) < 100ms < 200ms

Response Time (p95) < 200ms < 500ms

Response Time (p99) < 500ms < 1000ms

Throughput

1000 RPS 500 RPS

Error Rate < 0.1% < 1%

CPU Utilization < 70% < 90%

Key Formulas

Little's Law: L = λ × W (Concurrent requests = Arrival rate × Response time)

Throughput: Concurrent Users / Average Response Time

Apdex: (Satisfied + Tolerating/2) / Total

References

Reference Content When to Load

performance-strategy-template.md Full strategy template, scope, environment, scenarios Planning performance test strategy

nbomber-examples.md Basic load test, complex scenarios, data-driven tests Implementing .NET performance tests

capacity-planning.md Little's Law, throughput, Apdex, BenchmarkDotNet Capacity planning calculations

Integration Points

Inputs from:

• Non-functional requirements → SLA targets

• Architecture documents → Component topology

• test-strategy-planning skill → Test scope

Outputs to:

• CI/CD pipeline → Automated performance gates

• Monitoring systems → Baseline metrics

• Capacity planning → Infrastructure sizing

Test Scenarios

Scenario 1: Planning performance strategy

Query: "Help me create a performance test plan for our API"

Expected: Skill activates, provides strategy template, guides through objectives and scope

Scenario 2: Implementing load tests

Query: "Show me how to use NBomber for load testing in .NET"

Expected: Skill activates, loads nbomber-examples.md reference, provides code examples

Scenario 3: Capacity planning

Query: "How do I calculate capacity requirements for 10,000 users?"

Expected: Skill activates, loads capacity-planning.md reference, provides formulas and templates

Last Updated: 2025-12-28

Version History

• v1.1.0 (2025-12-28): Refactored to progressive disclosure - extracted templates/examples to references/

• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release