Groupon uses an open source project named Grinder to execute performance testing. I worked with an internal virtual team to create a web user interface with the following objectives:
- Start and stop tests
- Provide a simple UI to prevent confusion and accidentally overloading servers
- Secure the tool to prevent unauthorized access
- Prevent tests from interfering with each otehr
We were able to deliver thses goals in less than a week and present it in a company wide forum for evaluation.
In addition I created a framework to simplify the script writing process, standardizing how test distributions were created, removing the need for creating a TestRunner class (boilerplate code), and simplifying the use of data for datadriven tests.
The virtual team continues to improve the system by adding:
- Integration with Jira to only allow approved tests to run
- Google Calendar integration to prevent scheduling conflicts
- Github support so all scripts will be under source control