load-test-plan

Design a load test plan for $ARGUMENTS.

Process (sequential — do not skip steps)

Step 1: Target Identification

Before writing any test scripts, understand what you are testing and what "normal" looks like.

1. What system/endpoint/flow? — specific URLs, API routes, or user workflows
2. Current traffic patterns — check APM, access logs, or analytics for: requests/second, concurrent users, peak hours, read/write ratio
3. Data characteristics — how large is the database? How many records in key tables? What is the average payload size?
4. Dependencies — what external services does this endpoint call? (databases, caches, third-party APIs, message queues)

If no traffic data exists, estimate from user count and expected usage patterns. Document the assumption.

Step 2: Scenario Design

Design tests for each type. Do not skip any — each type reveals different problems.

Test type	Purpose	Duration	Load pattern	What it reveals
Baseline	Establish normal performance	5 minutes	Current production load	What "good" looks like — your comparison point
Stress	Find the breaking point	15 minutes	Ramp from 1x to 10x current load	Where errors start, which component fails first
Endurance	Find slow leaks and degradation	1–4 hours	Sustained 2x load	Memory leaks, connection pool exhaustion, log disk filling
Spike	Test auto-scaling and recovery	10 minutes	Sudden 5x spike, then return to normal	Recovery time, auto-scaling behaviour, queue backlog clearance

For each scenario, define:

• Virtual users (VUs): how many concurrent users
• Ramp-up: how quickly to reach target load
• Think time: realistic pause between user actions (not zero — real users think)
• Request mix: percentage of different operations (e.g., 80% reads, 15% writes, 5% deletes)

Step 3: Realistic Data

Test with production-like data. Empty databases lie about performance.

Requirement	Why it matters
Production-like data volume	Query performance degrades with table size. 100 rows ≠ 10M rows
Realistic data distribution	Hotspots, popular items, skewed access patterns affect caching and indexing
Diverse user profiles	Different users have different data volumes (power users vs new users)
Representative payloads	Request and response sizes affect network, serialisation, and memory

Rules:

• Never test against an empty database
• Use anonymised production data or realistic generators
• Document the data setup so tests are reproducible

Step 4: Tool Selection and Scripting

Preferred: k6 — scriptable, CI-friendly, JavaScript-based, built-in metrics. Alternative: Locust — Python-native, distributed by default.

k6 script skeleton:

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  scenarios: {
    baseline: {
      executor: 'constant-vus',
      vus: 50,          // adjust to current production load
      duration: '5m',
    },
    stress: {
      executor: 'ramping-vus',
      startVUs: 0,
      stages: [
        { duration: '2m', target: 50 },   // ramp to baseline
        { duration: '5m', target: 200 },   // ramp to 4x
        { duration: '5m', target: 500 },   // ramp to 10x
        { duration: '3m', target: 0 },     // ramp down
      ],
      startTime: '6m',  // start after baseline completes
    },
  },
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<500'],   // p95 < 500ms
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],     // error rate < 1%
  },
};

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/endpoint');
  check(res, {
    'status is 200': (r) => r.status === 200,
    'response time < 500ms': (r) => r.timings.duration < 500,
  });
  sleep(1); // think time — real users don't fire requests without pause
}

Step 5: Success Criteria

Define pass/fail thresholds BEFORE running the tests:

Metric	Target	Enforcement
p50 response time	< 200ms for API, < 1s for page load	k6 threshold
p95 response time	< 500ms for API, < 3s for page load	k6 threshold — build fails if exceeded
p99 response time	< 1s for API, < 5s for page load	k6 threshold
Throughput	Sustain 3x current load without degradation	Stress test verification
Error rate	< 0.1% under normal load, < 1% under stress	k6 threshold
CPU utilisation	< 70% at normal load	Monitoring during test
Memory utilisation	Stable (no upward trend during endurance test)	Monitoring during test

Step 6: Environment

Requirement	Why
Isolated environment	Shared staging gives shared noise. Results are meaningless if other tests are running
Production-like sizing	Testing on a single-node dev instance tells you nothing about production
Monitoring active	CPU, memory, disk I/O, network, database connections — all must be observable during the test
Pre-flight check	Before running: verify environment is clean, no existing load, baseline metrics are normal

Step 7: Execution Plan

Item	Detail
When to run	Off-peak for shared environments. Any time for isolated environments
Who monitors	Someone watches dashboards during the test — automated tests need human observation for unexpected patterns
Results storage	k6 Cloud, InfluxDB + Grafana, or JSON output committed to repo
Comparison baseline	Every run is compared to the previous baseline. Regressions are flagged automatically

Anti-Patterns (NEVER do these)

• Testing against empty databases — query performance is O(1) on 100 rows and O(n log n) on 10M rows. Empty databases lie
• Zero think time — real users pause between actions. Zero think time tests your server under unrealistic conditions
• Testing only the happy path — include error paths, auth failures, large payloads, and concurrent writes
• Shared staging — if other teams are using the same environment, your results include their noise
• No baseline — without a baseline, you cannot detect regression. Always run baseline first
• One-time tests — load tests should run in CI on every significant change to performance-critical paths

Output Format

# Load Test Plan: [target system/endpoint]

## Target
- **System:** [what is being tested]
- **Current load:** [requests/sec, concurrent users]
- **Data profile:** [database size, key table counts]
- **Dependencies:** [external services called]

## Scenarios
| Scenario | VUs | Duration | Ramp | Success criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | [n] | 5m | None | p95 < 500ms, errors < 0.1% |
| Stress | [n→10n] | 15m | Linear | Find breaking point, graceful degradation |
| Endurance | [2n] | 2h | None | No memory leak, stable latency |
| Spike | [5n sudden] | 10m | Step | Recovery < 2 minutes |

## Thresholds
| Metric | Baseline | Stress | Endurance | Spike |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| p95 response | < 500ms | < 2s | < 500ms (stable) | < 500ms (post-recovery) |
| Error rate | < 0.1% | < 5% | < 0.1% | < 1% (post-recovery) |
| CPU | < 70% | documented | < 70% (stable) | recovers to < 70% |

## Environment
- **Target:** [URL/endpoint]
- **Data:** [production-like, [n] records]
- **Monitoring:** [tools in use]
- **Isolation:** [dedicated/shared]

## Schedule
- **Date:** [when]
- **Monitor:** [who watches]
- **Results:** [where stored]

Related Skills

• /performance-engineer:capacity-plan — use load test results to validate or update capacity plans.
• /performance-engineer:performance-profile — when load tests reveal bottlenecks, profile the specific endpoints to find root causes.