The bottlenecks are necessity. We cross bottlenecks everyday; just, we do not observe it. If you have not read my today's thought on the bottleneck, read it here.
What are the common performance bottlenecks, and how do you go about pinpointing and resolving them?
I have a different opinion and thoughts to share on this question. It may look weird, but, I see this is the reality.
Let me share what happens to a practicing Test Engineer when going through a bottleneck in practicing a subject to upskill.
- The time taken to accomplish tasks and its milestones looks unusually high - the other extreme end.
- Some attempts will not even kick off on entering the bottleneck for several reasons.
- One of the reason is the fear and what my peers think if I fail to accomplish it.
- I lose the focus.
- It leads to lose of interest, unhealthy confidence and the inconsistency.
- The procrastination kicks in.
- Without no self-motivation, determination and consistency, we give up; clog and remain in the bottleneck. One will fail to make use of the bottleneck to scale self.
- One do not go back or come out of it.
- We start to blame the bottlenecks.
- But, we fail to understand that the bottlenecks are part of the system.
What makes one to have a hard time with available bottleneck is,
- Ignoring the bottleneck.
- Not being aware of the benefits and impact from the bottleneck's existence.
- Its effects are adverse in a longer run
- Likewise, its benefits are immense in a longer run
If seen, the existence of bottleneck has two extreme ends -- good and not so good. The bottlenecks cannot be eliminated or eradicated; it can only be managed with awareness and knowing how to adapt and scale through it.
Me, The Actual Performance Bottleneck
This may appear as a critical self evaluation. But, it is not. In my experience and practice, I'm learning consistently,
- If there is any difficulty in communicating about the tests and identifying the information from my tests,
- It is do with me for first.
- I will have to communicate it and why it is so.
- If I'm not exposing myself to a subject's area and its practice by putting the subject to test,
- I'm the bottleneck.
- Further, the other bottlenecks that I encounter from all other systems, it easily compounds the problem and its impact.
Call out any testing with a name, for first I will be the bottleneck to myself and to my testing, if I'm not aware of it and not practicing in it.
For example, I'm asked and taught to do functional testing at a GUI layer. Why I'm not asked and taught to do the performance and security tests at a GUI layer? Or, why I do not think of it? Should someone say me to think of it, practice it, and, do testing for the same? If the floor and industry do not push me to do so, I will have to open myself to create that opportunity and awareness. Did you see that, this is my performance bottleneck?
To test, evaluate and identify [pinpoint] the performance bottleneck in the software system, I will have to practice Performance Engineering & Testing. Only then, I will be able to identify its existence precisely before pinpointing. If I do not practice by building and refining the awareness, I cannot explain what I'm pinpointing.
I pinpoint myself [the bottleneck] first, if I identify wisely what is the performance bottleneck. If I fix my bottlenecks, I will be able to identify bottlenecks in the system that I test.
Let me practice the performance engineering and help my team, and community to practice it. If not, I will not be in position to name a bottleneck, forget pinpoint it. I will just follow, what others say and think it is right.
Note: I share the above from my personal experience in testing practice and also from reading [& answering] the performance testing questions that are posted in the communities social spaces. I see fixing this and practicing better here is important for first, than identifying and solving the bottlenecks in software system.
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