The role of modeling in the performance testing of e-commerce applications

An e-commerce scalability case study is presented in which both traditional performance testing and performance modeling were used to help tune the application for high performance. This involved the creation of a system simulation model as well as the development of an approach for test case generation and execution. We describe our experience using a simulation model to help diagnose production system problems, and discuss ways that the effectiveness of performance testing efforts was improved by its use.