We've been covering performance quite a bit — not just recently, but throughout the course of the year. Now, Harry Roberts weighs in by identifying three types of ways performance can be tested.
Of particular note is the first type of testing:
The first kind of testing a team should carry out is Proactive testing: this is very intentional and deliberate, and is an active attempt to identify performance issues.
This takes the form of developers assessing the performance impact of every piece of work they do as they’re doing it. The idea here is that we spot the problem before it becomes problematic. Prevention, after all, is cheaper than the cure. Capturing performance issues at this stage is much more preferable to spotting them after they’ve gone live.
I think about this type of performance all the time when I’m working on a team, although I’ve never had a name for it.
I guess what I’m always thinking about is how can we introduce front-end engineers into the design process as early as possible? I’ve found that the final product is much more performant in when front-end engineers and designers brainstorm solutions together. Perhaps collaborating on a performance checklist is a good place to start?