7 tips for improving load speed

Plan for performance

Are you building a new website? Be sure to discuss the importance of performance early on and set targets. That way, you have a faster load speed from the beginning and don’t have to implement fixes later.

Step 1: test, step 2: test…

Are you seeing a pattern here? 😉 Testing is crucial! Before you launch, load and test your website multiple times to make sure you can handle the traffic of real site visitors. This is especially important for sites with complex hosting, such as load-balanced configuration.

Implement some “quick wins”

To be clear, there’s no “get fast quick” scheme for site load speeds. But there is a tried-and-true template that will put you ahead of the curve. That includes making use of modern image formats, enabling compression on the server via Gzip, and leveraging browser cache. Find some more low-hanging fruit here.

Careful of your images!

Good websites have great graphic content – but they also take into account how images impact load speed. You can improve image performance by considering file formats, image compression, and lazy loading.

Think of the mobile visitors

More and more people surf the web on their phone these days, which makes mobile-optimized sites a huge priority! Since mobile users tend to use slower, less stable Internet connections, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) are a great way to get them content faster.

Prioritize above-the-fold

First impressions matter – and your above-the-fold content can make or break them! Consider inline styling for above-the-fold, then loading your code in chunks. This type of asynchronous loading can create a faster perceived load time for the user.

Assess your external scripts

Third-party scripts are a great tool – but can make your website feel a little crowded. Assess the performance of external scripts on your site load speed, and replace or remove those that are negatively impacting user experience.

Acceptance Testing Business Process and Business Rules Modelling

Modelling Business Processes and Rules

Organisations need confidence that critical business processes, such as order-to-cash procedures, human resource on-boarding, or production planning, can be performed without disruption. This is known as “business process assurance” and it is an essential objective of acceptance testing. In this context, two standards exist that provide a common language for business analysts and testers for graphically representing business processes and business rules: Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and Decision Model and Notation (DMN). These models support the design and implementation of tests and help to determine the priority for execution.

Business process/rule models describe the business flow and the expected behaviour of the test object. Representing business processes and rules to be tested using a graphical notation helps to establish a common understanding of what is expected. A business process corresponds to a flow of tasks, alternative paths, and the various events at the start, the end or possibly during the control flow. Business rules define explicit criteria for guiding behaviour, shaping judgments, or making decisions. 

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG), is a recognised standard for business process modelling which uses a flowcharting technique. In this article, a subset of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) notation is used that is sufficient to draw simple business process models in the context of acceptance testing activities.

Decision Model and Notation (DMN), also standardised by the Object Management Group (OMG), is complementary to the BPMN standard. While Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is used to represent workflows, DMN is used to represent decisions, business rules and outcomes/output within the workflow. In this article, a subset of the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) notation is used that is sufficient to define business rules in conjunction with simple business process models in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN).

Deriving Acceptance Tests from Business Process/Rule Models

A business process model with business rules, described with the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and/or Decision Model and Notation (DMN) notations, provides a precise definition of the scenarios to be tested, including the cases related to business rules. It is a good basis for generating acceptance tests using coverage-based test selection criteria as defined in a model-based testing approach. 

Coverage-based test selection follows the principle that the business analyst and tester agree on the coverage items that shall be fully tested. Typical coverage items for business process models when generating acceptance tests include the following: 

  • User stories, requirements, and risks annotated in the business process model.
  • Decisions in the decision tables describing the business rules.
  • User scenarios defined by different paths through the business process model.
  • All paths (usually without loops) through the business process model.

Once the coverage items are defined, the tester then identifies a set of test cases that covers those items. Full coverage is achieved if the test suite covers each occurrence of the coverage item in the model at least once during execution.

Different coverage criteria may be combined to meet the acceptance testing objectives. For example, the objective may be to cover all paths of a given main scenario, but only one path of each alternative scenario.

Business Process Modelling for Acceptance Testing

Business process/rule models describe the business flow and the expected behaviour of the test object. The use of business process/rule modelling in the context of acceptance testing is based on good modelling practices and supports visual ATDD practices.

Good Practices for Business Process Modelling for Acceptance Testing

The following good practices should be considered when using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and Decision Model and Notation (DMN) for acceptance testing: 

  • It is not necessary to describe everything in a business process model. The graphical representations of business processes in BPMN should focus on requirements to be tested. Therefore, workflow descriptions that only partially cover the behaviour of related software systems are acceptable, as long as they represent what is to be tested.
  • Especially for rule-based business processes, using decision tables helps manage dependencies. DMN supports the definition of conditions and outcomes corresponding to the business rules under test.
  • Diagrams should be as simple as possible and be structured in sub-processes when needed to limit the number of graphical elements in a single business process diagram. This improves readability and facilitates reviews.
  • Business process modelling for acceptance testing should be a collaborative work between business analysts and testers. Artefacts produced should be shared between and reviewed by both roles. Early and close communication between those two roles improves the quality of requirements or user stories as well as tests. (This is true for all test levels.)
  • Additional information such as links to user stories, requirements, risks, priorities and any other information useful for acceptance testing should be added to the diagrams using annotations. By keeping all relevant information in a single location, it becomes easier to make decisions and reasons are better documented.

Using Business Process Models for ATDD

During the refinement sessions for requirements and user stories, the business process and business rule models will help the team to get into the details of the expected behaviour and the acceptance criteria. The representation of workflows in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and of rules in Decision Model and Notation (DMN) directly enable testers to design appropriate test cases that verify the acceptance criteria.

Business process modelling for ATDD is based on the following principles:

  • Business analysts and testers collaborate to model workflows and business rules using graphical notations such as BPMN and DMN.
  • These business process/rule models are reviewed with relevant stakeholders and contribute to the validation of the requirements and acceptance criteria.
  • Testers derive tests from these business process/rule models to ensure and demonstrate the required coverage through the different paths and business rules.
  • Business analysts and testers may also use the models to identify changes that necessitate test case maintenance and to select regression test cases.
  • Business process/rule models created and maintained for ATDD can be viewed as living documentation used by business analysts to present the actual behaviour of
    the test object.
  • Automated test generation techniques can be used to produce and maintain automated test scripts. The model-based testing approach can also be combined with keyword-driven testing and data-driven testing approaches.

Business process/rule modelling in ATDD provides a visualisation of the workflows to be tested. This is the major difference from the Gherkin language used in BDD.

Acceptance Criteria, Acceptance Tests and Experience-Based Practices

Writing Acceptance Criteria

Specifying acceptance criteria is an important acceptance testing task. It helps to refine requirements or user stories and provides the basis for acceptance tests. Business analysts and testers should collaborate closely on the specification of these criteria. This collaboration ensures high business value from the acceptance testing phase and increases the chance of a successful iteration or product release. 

Writing acceptance criteria forces business analysts and testers to think about functionality, performance, and other characteristics from a stakeholder or usage perspective. This supports early verification and validation of the related requirement or user story and provides a better chance of detecting inconsistencies, contradictions, missing information or other problems. 

The following good practices should be considered when writing acceptance criteria:

  • Well-written acceptance criteria are precise, measurable and concise. Each criterion must be written in a way that enables the tester to measure whether or not the test object complies with the acceptance criterion.
  • Well-written acceptance criteria do not include technical solution details. They concentrate on the question “What shall be achieved?” rather than on the question “How shall it achieved?”.
  • Acceptance criteria should address non-functional requirements (quality characteristics) as well as functional requirements.

As with requirements and user stories, acceptance criteria should be reviewed through walkthroughs, technical reviews, iteration planning meetings or other methods (if necessary).

Designing Acceptance Tests

This section addresses the test techniques and approaches frequently used for acceptance testing.

Test Techniques for Acceptance Testing

In a requirements-based approach to acceptance testing, the tester derives test cases from the acceptance criteria related to each requirement or user story using black-box techniques such as equivalence partitioning or boundary value analysis.

Acceptance testing may be augmented with other test techniques or approaches:

  • Business process-based testing, possibly combined with decision table testing, validates business processes and rules.
  • Experience-based testing leverages the tester’s experience, knowledge and intuition.
  • Risk-based testing is based on risk types and levels. Prioritisation and thoroughness of testing depends on previously identified product risks.
  • Model-based testing uses graphical (or textual) models to obtain acceptance tests.

Acceptance criteria should be verified by acceptance tests and traceability between the requirements / user story and related test cases should be managed.

Using the Gherkin Language to Write Test Cases

In ATDD and BDD, acceptance tests are often formulated in a structured language, referred to as the Gherkin language. Using the Gherkin language, test cases are phrased declaratively using a standardised pattern:

  • Given [a situation]
  • When [an action on the system]
  • Then [the expected result]

The pattern allows business analysts, testers and developers to write test cases in a way that is easily shared with stakeholders and may be translated into automated tests. 

The “Given” block aims to put the test object in a state before performing test actions in the “When” block. The “Then” block specifies the consequences that can be observed from the actions defined in the “When” block. Test cases written in Gherkin do not refer to user interface elements but rather to user actions on the system. They are structured natural language test cases that can be understood by all relevant stakeholders. 

In addition, the structure “Given – When – Then” can be parsed in an automated way. This allows automated test script creation using a keyword-driven testing approach. 

Initially, Gherkin was specific to some software tools supporting BDD, but it is now synonymous with the “Given – When – Then” acceptance test design pattern. 

Experience-based Approaches for Acceptance Testing

All experience-based test techniques described in are relevant for acceptance testing. This section is focused on how exploratory testing can be used for acceptance tests, and on beta testing as a source of feedback on system usage. 

Exploratory Testing

Exploratory testing is an experience-based test technique that is not based on detailed predefined test procedures. In exploratory testing, all activities are carried out within an uninterrupted period of time called a session. The testers are domain experts. They are familiar with user needs, requirements and business processes, but they are not necessarily familiar with the product under test. 

During an exploratory testing session, the tester accomplishes the following:

  • Learns how to work with the product
  • Designs the tests
  • Performs the tests
  • Interprets the results

It is a good practice in exploratory testing to use a test charter. The test charter is prepared prior to the testing session (possibly jointly by the business analyst and the tester) and is used by the person in charge of the exploratory session (either a business analyst, tester or another stakeholder). It includes information about the purpose, target, and scope of the exploratory session, the test setup, the duration of the session, and possibly some tactics to be used during the session (such as the type of user that shall be simulated during the exploratory session). Time-boxed sessions help to control the time and effort dedicated to the exploratory session. It is also good practice to perform exploratory testing in pairs or as team work. 

In Agile development, exploratory test sessions can be conducted during an iteration by the product owner and/or the testers for acceptance testing of user stories assigned to the iteration. 

Exploratory testing should be used to complement other more formal techniques in acceptance testing. For example, it may be used to provide rapid feedback on new features before methodical testing is applied. 

Beta Testing

Beta testing is a form of acceptance testing that is often used for Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software (COTS) or for Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms. It is conducted to obtain feedback from the market after development and in-house testing are completed. 

Unlike other acceptance testing forms, beta testing is performed by potential or existing users at their own location. Beta tests neither impose predefined test procedures nor a test charter. Apart from the observed findings, the test activities are usually not documented at all. 

Because the product is tested in various realistic configurations by actual users in their business process context, beta testing may discover defects that escaped during the development process and previous test levels. Resolving issues found by beta tests helps organisations avoid costly hot-fixes or product recalls on a larger scale. 

Acceptance testing should not be limited to beta testing. Beta testing is not systematic or measurable. There is no guarantee that all requirements or user stories are covered by the tests. Moreover, beta testing is performed late in the development process whereas tests based on acceptance criteria support the “Early Testing” principle.