Case study: Performance Testing
Our client is a leading UK organisation specialising in developing and delivering educational assessments and qualifications. They offer a wide range of services, from creating challenging exams to supporting teachers and learners. Their assessments cover a broad spectrum of subjects and levels, from primary school to university. Beyond exams, they contribute to educational research, policy making, and international comparisons. This organisation plays a vital role in maintaining high standards in education across the UK and globally.
The Challenge
Our client, a UK-based university organisation, plays a critical role in global education and academic research, offering a wide range of resources and assessments to students and institutions worldwide. To maintain their competitive edge and continue supporting their vast user base, the organisation needed to ensure the reliability and scalability of their global portal for viewing examination test results. As they prepared for the upcoming summer exam series, the need to handle peak loads became paramount. Additionally, they aimed to reduce tooling costs without compromising on technological innovation. This required a comprehensive overhaul of their performance testing tools and frameworks to enhance efficiency and reliability.
The Solution
To address these challenges, the client embarked on implementing a new performance testing framework that integrated the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Distributed Load Testing tool, Taurus, and Apache JMeter, along with sophisticated application monitoring consoles. This combination provided a robust and scalable solution capable of simulating high user loads across multiple geographic regions. CQE played an essential role in this implementation, offering expert guidance and support to overcome technical challenges such as test tool-related issues and AWS Fargate service errors. CQE’s consultancy services extended to developing a detailed test strategy, including crafting a test plan, executing tests, analysing results, and performing root cause analysis, ensuring a comprehensive and successful deployment and test phase.
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The Results
With CQE's assistance, the client successfully executed tests involving up to 750,000 concurrent users, effectively validating their global portal's capacity and performance. This rigorous testing process ensured that the platform could handle the demands of the summer series with confidence. The successful implementation of the new performance framework provided the client with solid evidence of meeting non-functional requirements (NFRs) related to performance, scalability and reliability. The engagement not only validated the platform's capabilities but also equipped the client with a sustainable performance framework capability, enhancing their ability to manage future demands and maintain their position in global education, assessment, and research.