The latest innovations in performance testing at Guardian and beyond

With the ever-present DevOps demand to check in on your software performance strategically and routinely, we recently spoke with leaders in the field to shine a light on the latest performance testing trends in the Transformation in 10 podcast. As Tricentis recently acquired the new leading tool in performance testing, NeoLoad, we look at exactly how this can benefit your needs, and get to grips with the bigger performance testing picture — largely being reframed as performance engineering by our experts.

In this series, I speak with passionate professionals who live, breathe, and push boundaries in performance testing. Leandro Melendez, Performance Test Manager at Qualitest, uses an array of enlightening analogies to explain peak performance testing and monitoring, and Kristen Webb breaks down the complexities of cloud performance testing. The cloud is a common talking point, demonstrated in practice at Guardian Life with Ryan Cruz, Performance Testing Manager.

Check out what to expect in the latest episodes, or jump right in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other streaming platforms.

Episodes 20 and 21: Leandro Melendez at Qualitest likens continuous performance testing to dental hygiene

Leandro Melendez, aka Señor Performo, makes it crystal clear that performance testing is not to be confused with load testing. He advises us to approach continuous performance as we do with dental care —– do the small stuff regularly, such as single -user simulations and telemetry (as you would with flossing and brushing), to avoid expensive and painful discoveries at the full-scale load testing stage.

As well as sharing tried-and-true methods to best test SAP applications, Leandro explains how to overcome common obstacles to integrating performance testing into automated pipelines. Here is one invaluable piece of advice in this regard:

 

Listen to this two-part conversation with Leandro in Part 1 and Part 2.

Episodes 22 and 23: Kristen Webb puts cloud performance testing into three insightful buckets

Kristen Webb, Product Marketing Director at Tricentis, presents a compelling case for NeoLoad, with a standout story from Dell. We discover that by adopting automated performance testing, Dell’s 120+ implicated testers can truly keep pace with development, creating complex test case designs a staggering 400% faster than before.

If you’re looking to kick-start your performance testing efforts, Kirsten offers top-tier advice, starting with identifying your most common use cases. If you’re ready to tackle cloud performance testing, you’re in good hands, as Kirsten enthuses that she loves this topic and dives into how to excel in this environment:

 

Check out my chat with Kristen in Part 1 and Part 2.

Episodes 24 and 25: Ryan Cruz at Guardian Life is excited by performance testing finally being prioritized

Nothing gets to the crux of performance engineering done expertly like seeing it play out in practice, as proven by Ryan Cruz, Performance Engineering Manager at Guardian Life. Ryan shares undeniable contributors such as upskilling performance testers to engineers, and integrating APM solutions and NeoLoad to excel customer experience.

Based on Ryan’s updates on Guardian’s cloud-first strategy, the time and diligence invested in this project spanning five years is clearly paying off. With performance testing heavily involved, they have migrated 200+ apps to the AWS cloud in just one year, and now new apps are built directly in the cloud. Ryan details Guardian’s savvy approach to their cloud initiative:

 

Listen to Ryan’s insights in Part 1 and Part 2.

Spotlighting diversity and inclusion in tech

In September we highlight the importance of diversity in the application development world, and why fair representation of ethnicities, gender, and working styles is critical to deliver solutions that truly cater for all.

First up I chat with Jordan Grantham, Global Education Specialist at Tricentis, about how our Academy team enhances software testing employment opportunities for people with autism, women, and refugees. Caroline Wong, Chief Strategy Officer a Colbalt.io, shares her perspective as a C-level leader as well as her role leading the “people” aspect of Cobalt.io.

The latest episodes are released biweekly, so check for the latest episodes. We’d love to hear your feedback on social media — hashtag #TransformationIn10 and we might give you a shout-out on the show.