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Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director
Here's a view of roles from my experience.
In performance testing, there's generally a lack of clarity in role definition. I find there is usually uncertainty around who sets performance requirements. Sometimes, the team makes this easy for themselves. As technical requirements or user stories are written, clarity is provided around the number of concurrent users the site should handle within a given response time. However, response time is only one of several metrics required for performance testing. As a test leader, I find myself proposing and establishing performance-related metrics on many projects.
In the end, quality belongs to everyone, but I appreciate a tester taking a leadership role if no performance metrics have been established or if established metrics are insufficient. And when responsibilities are unclear, it's critical to approach the issue as an influencer, rather than trying to 'lay down the law'. Be open to negotiating, do your homework, and be ready to explain your reasoning and back it up with metrics.
This was first published in August 2009