When Load Testing Large User Population Web Applications The Devil Is In the (Virtual) User Details

Many times load testing is dismissed as a waste of time and money because past results didn't conform to real world experience when the application went live. Sometimes it’s because the test suite is too narrow but often it is due to the approach used to produce traffic and the way results are interpreted. This discussion focuses on the latter situation because a lack of testing scope is an obvious limitation but poor quality traffic and improper analysis techniques are subtle shortcomings that impact test credibility in ways that aren’t always clear until the live application reveals them.