Performance testing is typically performed by companies when a large-scale change is expected in the case of their complex IT systems and critical applications, which is expected to have an impact on the performance of their IT systems. Companies that use performance measurement typically have a high IT exposure, meaning they have a high-value asset base and IT is present in critical corporate processes.
In most cases, mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, external and internal organizational changes make it necessary to change the IT systems. The change may cause system-wide differences in the performance of specific software and/or hardware or even the entire IT equipment. In such cases, it is necessary to test the performance of the systems in order to obtain evidence that all components of the system will function properly under the changed conditions. In the absence of testing, there may even be an anomaly affecting the day-to-day operations of the company.
System migration For a larger-scale transformation of an IT system - system introduction, -migration, etc. - it is essential that the IT systems affected by the change are not scaled up or down. A performance test can be used to check the expected operation of the transforming IT systems. Therefore, by measuring performance, companies can indirectly save time and money by being able to accurately plan future IT resource needs.
The question rightly arises in outsiders, if it is known in advance that the load will increase by x percent, then why not simply increase the resources by that much? The design of complex systems is not an exact science. There are aspects that can and should be considered in the design process. In reality, however, it is only during implementation that it is possible to finalize which layer of which resource needs to be added to which layer in order for the planned excess capacity to materialize.
Most large enterprise processes are extremely complex. Dozens of systems are involved in a single sub-process, such as a mobile bank transfer. If the cross-section is somewhere in only one of these systems or hardware components, it captures the whole process.
Thus, during performance testing, most measurements examine the behavior of the system, under extreme conditions, and after these modifications, we re-measure whether they have achieved the expected effect. Performance testing is always decided by the management - primarily on the recommendation of CTO, CIO, head of operations, heads of critical business units. Performance measurement is usually a larger project that takes several months, so agreement and consistency among management is important as it requires a high degree of common effort from all participants.
A merger, expansion, or acquisition is a huge challenge in the life of a financial institution. In addition to the organizational consolidation resulting from the acquisition, the new organization will include all services, all previous customers, along with all of their data. The integration of banking systems is inevitable to deal with a changed market. Whether they are transforming old systems or creating completely new ones, they need to include all the new customers, all the new data, all the new transaction types, and often the old transactions as well. The new unified IT system must be designed to simultaneously manage the expanded organization while also managing the legacy files perfectly.
A similar process took place in the case of DSK Bank. Bulgaria's leading bank, a member of OTP Group, has expanded by about 30 percent in recent acquisitions. During the merger process, DSK Bank's systems were retained, and data from “legacy” IT systems were migrated to them. According to preliminary expectations, the load on the systems of the thus expanded bank increased by 30-60 percent compared to the previous ones.
The bank's executives therefore considered it necessary to model the systems before completing the migration, to examine its expected operation in advance during the expected extreme load in the first days after the migration. Therefore, prior to the live operation of the merged systems, the bank asked a team of ProofIT and KPMG experts already experienced in the subject to assess the load-bearing capacity of the systems. Their task was to check that the bank's systems could hold the increased load with performance tests before completing the system migration.
Ask our performance testing experts for performance testing of complex IT systems. >>>Learn more about our performance measurement service >>>