My Load Test

Correlation is one of the fundamental LoadRunner scripting skills; and LoadRunner novices are usually not very good at it (which is expected), but people who think they are LoadRunner experts are sometimes not very good at it either.

Mercury has done just about everything it can to remove the need for complicated correlation (correlation rules, the “scan script for correlations” option in VuGen, HTML mode recording, the Click and Script vuser type), but there will always be web applications that will require you to perform manual correlation when scripting.

Mercury’s training material kind of glosses over correlation, and makes it look overly easy – the correlation exercise from the training material never gives any of my students any problems; but if the training material were to include difficult exercises, it would be necessary to spend another day, and more people would be unable to complete the exercises.

I usually tell my students that they will encounter some much more difficult to correlate applications than the Mercury Tours website, and they will need to spend some time improving their manual correlation skills using WDiff .

This exercise should really test your correlation skills. Every problem (or something very similar) has been seen “in the wild” while I have been creating scripts for LoadRunner. The first exercise is the same as the exercise from Mercury’s VuGen 8.1 Scripting for the Web training material.

Correlation exercise coming soon…

Until the, have a go at the previous scripting exercises:

• Scripting Exercise: Credit Card Challenge
• Scripting Exercise: A basic AJAX application
• Scripting Exercise: Unique Usernames

The Mercury Certified Instructor qualification is not about having mastery over the Mercury toolset (although if you are sitting for the CI exam, you probably have this anyway); it is about ensuring that you have the ability to effectively deliver training material to a classroom of students.

Officially, Mercury training must be delivered by someone who has a CI qualification and the appropriate CPC qualification for the tool that they are delivering the training for. In practice, there aren’t enough Certified Instructors yet, so this is not enforced.

After wanting to do it for a while, I completed the Mercury Certified Instructor training and passed the exam in December 2005 (making me the only non-Mercury employee technically allowed to deliver the LoadRunner training in Australia).

The course is run by the instructor according to the same teaching theories that are taught in the course (which I am rather embarrassed to admit I didn’t fully realise until the afternoon of the first day). The first two days run through all the theory, and the third day is dedicated to the final exam – presenting a module of Mercury training in a way that will satisfy all the grading criteria.

Even though I had presented the training module before, presenting it while remembering to “create a non-threatening environment”, “address multiple learning modes”, and “exhibit energy and enthusiasm” was like juggling and spinning plates at the same time.

The final exam was one of the hardest I have ever done, despite my previous teaching experience delivering Mercury training and as a class tutor for 1st year university C++ and Digital Design subjects.

The only people in the class who managed to make it seem effortless were a former teacher and a Mercury employee who has run hundreds of Mercury training courses.

I highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in teaching others how to use the Mercury toolset, although the concepts can easily be applied to any training situation.

I have mixed feelings on learning that there is now a university-level subject in Performance Testing. CS 4803 EPR: Performance Engineering – Enterprise Computing Performance Engineering, presented by Brian Wilson at the Georgia Institute of Technology looks like a great subject, and it would be a lot of fun to do what Brian has done and run the same course at a local university. But, at the same time, I realise that doing this would be a clear case of fouling your own nest.

Flooding a profitable niche industry with recent university grads who are prepared to work for practically nothing and can claim practical experience with specialised tools will only push salaries in one direction. Obviously these people won’t be getting lead positions, but filling the bottom end of the market will, in turn, put pressure on the senior people who do get lead positions.

But this is really an inevitable trend. As the performance testing industry matures, people with performance testing skills will become more of a commodity. This is a good thing for software quality, but not such a good thing for people who are taking advantage of the current skills shortage.

That said, I am yet to meet a performance tester who was hesitant about sharing their knowledge. Maybe this just means that (collectively) we value good software more than high salaries.

Next on my professional qualification “to do” list is the Mercury Certified Instructor qualification.

From the Mercury Australia website:

The CI is an instructional certification intended for individuals who wish to teach official Mercury Interactive courses. This is a workshop-based class that focuses on understanding and using principles of learner-centred education to promote learning. The test at the end of the class will address your ability to:

• Create a safe learning environment that fosters teacher-student and student-student interactions
• Motivate participants
• Use effective learner-centred instructional techniques
• Demonstrate professionalism through effective presentation skills

The course content looks good, and it means that I should be able to get more training work, which I have found enjoyable so far. It probably won’t hurt to give my presentation skills a polish either.

The pre-class study summary (which has some good presentation tips too) suggests that students should familiarise themselves with the following resources:

• Developing Adult Learners: Strategies for Teachers and Trainers (book)
• Multiple Intelligences
• Constructivism
• Cooperative and collaborative learning

I haven’t been able to find any useful feedback from people who have completed the course. Gut-feel says that you would have to have no skills whatsoever to fail this course (how hard can it be?) but I like to have a “prepare for the worst, hope for the best” attitude, so I will be doing some reading and rehearsing before the course start date.

Update (January 14th, 2005)

I liked reading the sample chapter from Quick Training Tips! – How to Teach Computing Skills to Practically Anyone. This book would probably make a good study resource (as well as a valuable resource for professional trainers).

I’m looking at some general QA certification programs that are not tool-based certifications. Offerings in Australia are divided into two steams – the ISEB (delivered by several different companies and recognised internationally), and the CSTP (developed and delivered by K. J. Ross & Associates, and recognised in Australia only).

ISEB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing

• Introductory level
• 3 day course (~$2000 – $3000)
• Internationally recognised
• Endorsed by the Australian Computer Society and the Institute of Engineers Australia

ISEB Practitioner Certificate in Software Testing

• Builds on ISEB Foundation Certificate (which is a pre-requisite)
• 9 day course (~$9000)
• Not offered by most of the companies who offer the Foundation certificate as there are more stringent requirements on who can deliver this training. PlanIT seems to be the only company who is able to deliver this training.

CSTP Foundation

• Introductory level
• Recognised in Australia only
• Seems to have more depth than ISEB Foundation.
• 5 day course (~$3000)

CSTP Advanced

• Builds on CSTP Foundation (which is a pre-requisite)
• 13 day course (~$8000)
• Divided into 3 streams – Non-Functional Testing, Test Automation, and Test Management.

Update: ISEB has now been replaced by ISTQB, but the content and structure is very simlar. The CSTP is now offered by KJR&A and Object Consulting.