Editing Software performance testing (section)

=== Test conditions ===
In performance testing, it is often crucial for the test conditions to be similar to the expected actual use. However, in practice this is hard to arrange and not wholly possible, since production systems are subjected to unpredictable workloads. Test workloads may mimic occurrences in the production environment as far as possible, but only in the simplest systems can one exactly replicate this workload variability.

Loosely-coupled architectural implementations (e.g.: [[Service-oriented architecture|SOA]]) have created additional complexities with performance testing. To truly replicate production-like states, enterprise services or assets that share a common [[infrastructure]] or platform require coordinated performance testing, with all consumers creating production-like transaction volumes and load on shared infrastructures or platforms. Because this activity is so complex and costly in money and time, some organizations now use tools to monitor and simulate production-like conditions (also referred as "noise") in their performance testing environments ([[Performance test (assessment)|PTE]]) to understand capacity and resource requirements and verify / validate quality attributes.