Powerfulness characteristics
Powerfulness characteristics are measures of a system's delivery limits, i.e. how much services can be produced or how fast services can be delivered.
Powerfulness figures are always related to the hardware and software platform on which the measurements are performed.
Powerfulness measurements include three types of delivery characteristics:
Capacity
Capacity tests are measurements of delivery limits in terms of number of produced or managed services, by a tested system on a specified platform under specified conditions.
Measurements of capacity limits include three types of characteristics:
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Output or Throughput limits, i.e. how many services requests can be completed by the system per time unit.
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Input or Arrival limits, i.e. how many service requests can be accepted by the system per time unit.
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In progress or Concurrency limits, i.e. how many service requests can concurrently be processed by the system.
Speed
Speed tests are measurements of delivery limits in terms of processing time of requested services, by a tested system under specified conditions.
Measurements of speed limits include three types of characteristics:
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Transition time, i.e. measurements of time for a service request to pass a service or a node.
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Reaction time, i.e. measurements of time from an event to an expected action.
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Response time, i.e. measurements of time to deliver response to a request.
Scalability
Scalability tests are measurements of the powerfulness roof of a system in terms of:
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Capacity limitations that can not be eliminated by adding more hardware, i.e. "the ultimate bottleneck of a system".
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Speed limitations that can not be eliminated by changing to faster hardware, i.e. "the ultimate speed limit of a system".
Scalability limitations are also called Design Limitations, since they usually are related to the design of the tested system.
Design Limitations are in most cases very time consuming to resolv and expensive to eliminate.
Proceed to Reliability Characteristics
