# Performance Test Plan

# Performance Test Plan

> **Project:** {{PROJECT_NAME}}
> **Version:** {{VERSION}}
> **Date:** {{DATE}}
> **Author:** {{AUTHOR}}
> **Status:** Draft | In Review | Approved
> **Reviewers:** {{REVIEWERS}}

## Document History
| Version | Date | Author | Changes |
|---------|------|--------|---------|
| 0.1     | {{DATE}} | {{AUTHOR}} | Initial draft |

---

## 1. Performance Testing Objectives

<!-- GUIDANCE: Performance testing validates the system meets NFRs under realistic and peak conditions. State specific, measurable objectives. -->

1. Validate that {{PROJECT_NAME}} meets the performance SLAs defined in the NFR document under normal operating conditions
2. Determine the maximum capacity the system can handle before performance degrades
3. Identify bottlenecks (database, application, infrastructure) before production release
4. Establish a performance baseline for regression comparison in future releases

**Reference NFRs:** {{NFR_DOC_LINK}} <!-- Link to non-functional requirements -->

---

## 2. Performance Requirements Reference

<!-- GUIDANCE: These are the pass/fail criteria. Every performance test must have a target it is validating. -->

| Endpoint / Feature | P50 | P90 | P95 | P99 | Error Rate | Throughput |
|-------------------|-----|-----|-----|-----|------------|------------|
| `GET /` (homepage) | < {{P50}}ms | < {{P90}}ms | < {{P95}}ms | < {{P99}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | {{RPS}} req/s |
| `POST /api/auth/login` | < {{P50}}ms | < {{P90}}ms | < {{P95}}ms | < {{P99}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | {{RPS}} req/s |
| `GET /api/{{RESOURCE}}` | < {{P50}}ms | < {{P90}}ms | < {{P95}}ms | < {{P99}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | {{RPS}} req/s |
| `POST /api/{{RESOURCE}}` | < {{P50}}ms | < {{P90}}ms | < {{P95}}ms | < {{P99}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | {{RPS}} req/s |
| Database query (P95) | < {{DB_P95}}ms | | | | | |
| Page load (First Contentful Paint) | | | < {{FCP}}ms | | | |

<!-- TODO: Add all endpoints and features that have performance requirements -->

---

## 3. Test Types

### 3.1 Load Testing — Normal Load Simulation

<!-- GUIDANCE: Simulates expected production traffic. Should run against performance SLAs. -->

**Objective:** Confirm the system meets SLAs under expected normal load
**Normal load definition:** {{NORMAL_USERS}} concurrent users / {{NORMAL_RPS}} requests/second
**Duration:** {{LOAD_DURATION}} minutes (after ramp-up)
**Pass criteria:** All SLA targets in Section 2 met with ≤ {{LOAD_ERROR_RATE}}% error rate

### 3.2 Stress Testing — Beyond Normal Capacity

<!-- GUIDANCE: Find the breaking point. Understand failure mode (graceful degradation vs hard crash). -->

**Objective:** Find the maximum capacity and understand failure behavior
**Starting point:** {{STRESS_START_USERS}} users, increasing by {{STRESS_INCREMENT}} users every {{STRESS_STEP}}min
**Stop condition:** Error rate > {{STRESS_STOP_ERROR}}% or service crashes
**Pass criteria:** System fails gracefully (circuit breakers, meaningful error messages), data integrity maintained

### 3.3 Spike Testing — Sudden Traffic Surges

<!-- GUIDANCE: Simulate viral traffic events, marketing campaigns, product launches. -->

**Objective:** Verify system handles sudden traffic spikes without crashing
**Baseline:** {{SPIKE_BASELINE}} users
**Spike to:** {{SPIKE_PEAK}} users ({{SPIKE_MULTIPLIER}}× baseline)
**Spike duration:** {{SPIKE_DURATION}} minutes
**Pass criteria:** System recovers to baseline performance within {{SPIKE_RECOVERY}} minutes after spike ends

### 3.4 Endurance / Soak Testing — Sustained Load

<!-- GUIDANCE: Finds memory leaks, connection pool exhaustion, disk fill, log file growth over time. -->

**Objective:** Identify resource leaks and degradation under sustained load
**Load level:** {{SOAK_USERS}} users ({{SOAK_PERCENT}}% of normal load)
**Duration:** {{SOAK_DURATION}} hours
**Metrics to watch:** Memory usage trend, response time trend, disk space, database connection pool
**Pass criteria:** No upward trend in memory/response time over the soak period

### 3.5 Scalability Testing — Increasing Load

<!-- GUIDANCE: Verify that adding resources (horizontal/vertical scaling) results in proportional throughput increase. -->

**Objective:** Verify linear (or better) scaling as infrastructure grows
**Test:** Step load from {{SCALE_START}} to {{SCALE_MAX}} users while scaling from {{MIN_INSTANCES}} to {{MAX_INSTANCES}} instances
**Pass criteria:** Throughput increases proportionally (≥ {{SCALE_EFFICIENCY}}% efficiency) with added instances

---

## 4. Load Profiles

<!-- GUIDANCE: Define exact load scenarios. These are the inputs to your performance test scripts. -->

| Scenario | Virtual Users | Ramp-Up | Hold | Ramp-Down | Think Time | Iterations |
|----------|-------------|---------|------|-----------|------------|------------|
| Smoke (quick sanity) | {{SMOKE_VU}} | {{SMOKE_RAMP}}s | {{SMOKE_HOLD}}min | 30s | 1s | 1 |
| Load (normal) | {{LOAD_VU}} | {{LOAD_RAMP}}min | {{LOAD_HOLD}}min | 5min | {{THINK}}s | — |
| Stress | {{STRESS_VU}} (increasing) | {{STRESS_RAMP}}min | Until failure | — | {{THINK}}s | — |
| Spike | {{SPIKE_VU}} (instant) | 0s | {{SPIKE_HOLD}}min | 0s | {{THINK}}s | — |
| Soak | {{SOAK_VU}} | {{SOAK_RAMP}}min | {{SOAK_HOLD}}h | 10min | {{THINK}}s | — |

**Think time simulation:** Random between {{THINK_MIN}}s and {{THINK_MAX}}s (realistic user behavior)

---

## 5. Test Environment

<!-- GUIDANCE: Performance tests MUST run against a production-equivalent environment. Results from under-sized environments are misleading. -->

**CRITICAL:** Performance tests run on a dedicated environment with the same infrastructure sizing as production.

| Component | Test Environment | Production |
|-----------|-----------------|------------|
| App instances | {{TEST_APP_INSTANCES}} × {{TEST_INSTANCE_TYPE}} | {{PROD_APP_INSTANCES}} × {{PROD_INSTANCE_TYPE}} |
| Database | {{TEST_DB_SPEC}} | {{PROD_DB_SPEC}} |
| Cache | {{TEST_CACHE_SPEC}} | {{PROD_CACHE_SPEC}} |
| CDN | Disabled (direct hit) | Enabled |

**Load generator infrastructure:**
- Tool: {{PERF_TOOL}} <!-- k6 / JMeter / Gatling / Locust -->
- Load generator location: {{LG_LOCATION}} (same region as app, separate VPC)
- Load generator sizing: {{LG_SPEC}}

---

## 6. Test Data Requirements

<!-- GUIDANCE: Performance tests need realistic data volume. Empty DBs produce misleading fast results. -->

| Data Type | Volume | Generation Method |
|-----------|--------|-------------------|
| Users | {{USER_COUNT}} | Script + factory |
| {{DATA_TYPE_1}} | {{VOLUME}} | Bulk import script |
| {{DATA_TYPE_2}} | {{VOLUME}} | Bulk import script |
| Search index | Production-sized | Seeded from anonymized production data |

**Database size at test time:** {{DB_SIZE}}GB
**Data preparation:** `bash scripts/perf-seed.sh` (estimated time: {{SEED_TIME}}min)

---

## 7. Tools & Infrastructure

<!-- GUIDANCE: Document the complete toolchain with versions. -->

| Tool | Version | Purpose | Config |
|------|---------|---------|--------|
| {{PERF_TOOL}} | {{VERSION}} | Load generation | `perf-tests/` |
| {{MONITOR_TOOL}} | {{VERSION}} | Real-time metrics during test | Dashboard link |
| {{APM_TOOL}} | {{VERSION}} | Application performance profiling | Dashboard link |
| {{DB_MONITOR}} | {{VERSION}} | Database query analysis | Dashboard link |

**Script location:** `{{PERF_SCRIPT_PATH}}`

---

## 8. Key Metrics to Capture

<!-- GUIDANCE: Capture all these metrics for every performance test run. -->

### Response Time

| Metric | Description | Tool |
|--------|-------------|------|
| P50 (median) | Half of requests faster than this | {{TOOL}} |
| P90 | 90% of requests faster than this | {{TOOL}} |
| P95 | 95% of requests faster than this | {{TOOL}} |
| P99 | 99% of requests faster than this | {{TOOL}} |
| Max | Worst single request | {{TOOL}} |

### Throughput

| Metric | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| Requests/second | Total throughput at peak load |
| Transactions/second | Successful business transactions/second |
| Data transferred | Total MB/s in + out |

### Error Metrics

| Metric | Target |
|--------|--------|
| HTTP error rate (5xx) | < {{HTTP_ERR}}% |
| Timeout rate | < {{TIMEOUT_ERR}}% |
| Connection refused rate | 0% |

### Resource Utilization

| Resource | Warning | Critical |
|----------|---------|---------|
| App CPU | > {{CPU_WARN}}% | > {{CPU_CRIT}}% |
| App Memory | > {{MEM_WARN}}% | > {{MEM_CRIT}}% |
| DB CPU | > {{DB_CPU_WARN}}% | > {{DB_CPU_CRIT}}% |
| DB Connections | > {{DB_CONN_WARN}}% of pool | > {{DB_CONN_CRIT}}% |
| Cache hit ratio | < {{CACHE_HIT}}% | < {{CACHE_CRIT}}% |

### Database Query Performance

| Metric | Target |
|--------|--------|
| Average query time | < {{AVG_QUERY}}ms |
| Slow queries (> {{SLOW_THRESHOLD}}ms) | < {{SLOW_COUNT}} per minute |
| Deadlocks | 0 |

---

## 9. SLA Targets Per Endpoint

<!-- GUIDANCE: Repeat from Section 2 in a format that can be directly referenced by the test scripts. -->

| Endpoint | Method | P95 SLA | Error Rate SLA | Notes |
|----------|--------|---------|----------------|-------|
| `/` | GET | {{P95}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | Static or cached |
| `/api/auth/login` | POST | {{P95}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | Auth critical path |
| `/api/{{RESOURCE}}` | GET | {{P95}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | {{NOTE}} |
| `/api/{{RESOURCE}}` | POST | {{P95}}ms | < {{ERR}}% | {{NOTE}} |

---

## 10. Baseline Establishment

<!-- GUIDANCE: A baseline is required to detect regressions in future releases. Establish it on first run. -->

**Baseline criteria:** System in stable state, seeded with production-realistic data, running load test scenario for {{BASELINE_DURATION}} minutes

**Baseline metrics to record:**

| Metric | Baseline Value | Date Recorded |
|--------|---------------|---------------|
| P95 latency (key endpoints) | TBD | {{DATE}} |
| Throughput at normal load | TBD | {{DATE}} |
| Error rate at normal load | TBD | {{DATE}} |
| CPU utilization at normal load | TBD | {{DATE}} |
| Memory utilization at normal load | TBD | {{DATE}} |

**Regression threshold:** Alert if any metric degrades > {{REGRESSION_THRESHOLD}}% vs baseline

---

## 11. Test Execution Schedule

| Run Type | Trigger | Environment | Frequency |
|----------|---------|-------------|-----------|
| Smoke | Every deployment | Staging | Per deploy |
| Load (baseline) | Release candidate | Production-sized | Per release |
| Stress | Major feature releases | Production-sized | Quarterly |
| Soak | Before major releases | Production-sized | Per release |
| Scalability | Infrastructure changes | Production-sized | As needed |

---

## 12. Results Analysis Template

<!-- GUIDANCE: Use this format to document results for every performance test run. -->

**Test Run ID:** {{RUN_ID}}
**Date:** {{DATE}}
**Tester:** {{TESTER}}
**Scenario:** {{SCENARIO}}
**Build / Version:** {{VERSION}}

| Endpoint | P50 (ms) | P90 (ms) | P95 (ms) | P99 (ms) | Error % | RPS | Status vs SLA |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|---------|-----|---------------|
| {{ENDPOINT}} | — | — | — | — | — | — | ✅ Pass / ❌ Fail |

**Summary:**
- Peak concurrent users: {{PEAK_USERS}}
- Peak throughput: {{PEAK_RPS}} req/s
- Test duration: {{DURATION}} min
- Total requests: {{TOTAL_REQUESTS}}
- Total errors: {{TOTAL_ERRORS}}

**Notable findings:**
- {{FINDING_1}}
- {{FINDING_2}}

**Comparison to baseline:**
- {{COMPARISON}}

**Recommendation:** Pass / Fail / Conditional pass with {{CONDITIONS}}

---

## 13. Bottleneck Identification Process

<!-- GUIDANCE: When performance tests fail, follow this systematic process to find the root cause. -->

```
1. Check application error rate → Is the app returning errors, or just slow?
2. Check P99 vs P50 spread → Large spread = outlier requests (DB queries, locks, GC pauses)
3. Check CPU saturation → CPU > 80% sustained = compute bottleneck
4. Check memory → Memory growing during test = leak / GC pressure
5. Check DB metrics → Slow queries, high connections, deadlocks
6. Check cache hit rate → Low cache hit = DB overloaded unnecessarily
7. Check external calls → Third-party API latency or rate limiting
8. Check network → Bandwidth saturation, packet loss
```

---

## 14. Remediation Tracking

<!-- GUIDANCE: Track performance issues found and their fixes to ensure they are resolved. -->

| Issue | Found In | Severity | Root Cause | Fix | Fixed In | Verified |
|-------|----------|----------|------------|-----|----------|----------|
| {{ISSUE}} | {{SCENARIO}} | {{SEVERITY}} | {{CAUSE}} | {{FIX}} | {{VERSION}} | {{DATE}} |

---

## Related Documents

- [Test Strategy](./test-strategy.md)
- [Monitoring & Observability](../INFRASTRUCTURE/monitoring-observability.md)
- [SLA Report](../OPERATIONS/sla-report.md)

---

## Approval
| Role | Name | Date | Signature |
|------|------|------|-----------|
| Author | | | |
| Reviewer | | | |
| Approver | | | |