HP Discover 2013 (Las Vegas)

This year HP Discover (Las Vegas) was bigger than ever, with more than 11,000 attendees and nearly 700 sessions over 3 days. HP Discover is a great place to learn more about HP Software products, meet some great people, and get a peek at the product roadmaps for the next year.

I didn’t make it to the conference this year, as JDS asked that I not submit a presentation abstract. Instead, I have collected all the sessions from the Software (Quality and Performance Validation) track that I thought looked interesting, and that might be interesting for other performance testers.

Note: I am in the process of emailing the various speakers to get permission to post their slide decks here. Everyone I emailed last year gave their permission, so I expect it will be similar this year. Please be patient while this happens.

Tuesday (June 11th)

Applications: performance testing

Session ID: RT3111
Speaker: Shane Evans (HP)
Session Type: Roundtable
Time: 11 Jun 1:00 PM

This session cover the performance testing methodology and lifecycle—from planning through results analysis. Join us and learn how to provide practical feedback for quick bottleneck resolution. You’ll have the opportunity to discuss asset management, scripting practices, best practices in performance testing projects, and related topics. Products discussed: Load Runner, Performance Center and Diagnostics

As this was a roundtable (discussion) session, there were no slides.

Wednesday (June 12th)

BSKYB: Performance testing and continuous Integration

Session ID: BB3561
Speaker: Billy Hamilton (BSkyB)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 10:30 AM

In today’s world of agile releases and nimble technologies, it is imperative for internal IT processes to cater to the needs of the business. Learn how British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BSkyB) is working on adopting continuous integration processes via HP Application Lifecycle Management and Performance Center. Understand how to leverage BSkyB’s experiences accelerating development and QA cycles as well as integrating with production processes to deliver high-quality applications.

It’s agile, not fragile: HP’s point of view on application development and testing in the brave new world of mobile, cloud, and composite applications

Session ID: BB3356
Speaker: Kelly Emo (HP)
Session Type: Business Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 10:30 AM

Now is the time to rethink the way you and your teams build, test, and deliver applications. The business of building, deploying, and managing technology assets is undergoing a fundamental shift. We are in the middle of the largest enterprise mobile application rollout in history. On top of mobility, the use of SaaS and public and private cloud resources are becoming common place… and global competition is driving a level of urgency resulting in a dramatic acceleration of the development lifecycle. Hear insights, best practices, and software solutions that will help you address the challenge of rapid delivery in today’s user-centric applications. Learn HP’s approach to ALM, development management, and testing with automation, virtualization, collaboration, and traceability that accelerates application delivery timeframes for organizations worldwide. In addition, get a glimpse into how ALM breaks down the silos that impede velocity and accelerate processes across pre- and post-production teams for true continuous delivery. Gain timely advice, ideas for solutions that you can apply immediately, and thought-provoking next steps to consider. Finally, benefit from a quick guide to other applications sessions at HP Discover to maximize your time at the event.

Improving time-to-market at less cost with HP Service Virtualization

Session ID: TB2694
Speaker: Mirek Novotny (HP)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 10:30 AM

Constant changes in the IT industry, the adoption of agile, mobile, new programing languages, cloud development, big data, analytics, and exchange of information using APIs all introduce new challenges into application development groups. In this evolving context, mature organizations embrace agile development as a best approach for responsiveness. However, modern applications can bring serious constraints with interdependence among functional components, limiting agility and jeopardizing on-time delivery. See how HP Service Virtualization allows project teams to access limited or non-available services and systems in a simulated, virtual environment. Learn how developers can quickly create functional mockups; reuse emulated services or local simulations of third-party services to speed prototyping; shorten releases cycles by eliminating wait times during test preparation; and decrease the completion time for end-to-end testing.

Nationwide maximizes performance testing productivity

Session ID: TB2899
Speaker: Andrew Seling (Nationwide)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 12:00 PM

Are you overwhelmed by the number of projects and releases that you are being asked to support with performance testing? Modern composite applications, agile development, the cloud, and frequent releases are hallmarks of this era and create increasing pressure to ensure application performance. How do you respond to the pressure to do more performance testing without radically increasing costs and dealing with multiple vendors? Hear how Nationwide Insurance increased its performance testing capacity by a factor of 10, improving productivity and value to the organization.

Case study on using HP Service Virtualization to improve testing efficiency in HP-IT

Session ID: DT2754
Speakers: Huy Cat (HP), Anant Hariharan (HP)
Session Type: Demo Theater
Time: 12 Jun 12:45 PM

Composite applications that depend on multiple external services represent a significant challenge from a testing perspective. At HP-IT, we collaborated with HP Software Professional Services to apply Service Virtualization (SV) to develop virtual services for multiple Web Services that supported a core application undergoing several releases a year. Limited test windows for these web services meant that testing required lots of coordination effort, would often be delayed or stay incomplete. Use of SV helped to reduce the effort wastage by more than 95%. Both performance and functional testing could be conducted within minutes as needed rather than wait for the test window to open up. The average release cycle time was also reduced by 6 weeks. In this presentation, we will provide on overview of how we applied SV in our context, lessons learnt and best practices for leveraging this technology

The successful implementation of HP ALM and PC at a large utility company

Session ID: TB3102
Speakers: Andrew Cleveland (Orasi), Patrick Pent (Southern Company), Brent Westwood (Southern Company)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 3:00 PM

Southern Company, a major utility company in the southeastern U. S., faced a large challenge in supporting the upgrade and ongoing production deployment of an inventory, supply-chain, and work-order management system that helps support the ongoing operation of nuclear power plants. Overall challenges included central testing, asset management, and support for defect identification, processing, and remediation in multiple functional areas. In addition, the need to trace defects back to requirements was paramount. Learn how Southern Company deployed HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and Performance Center (PC) to increase test coverage with fewer resources, performance test the system, and provide highly visible reports and analysis graphs. Hear how easy the solution was to use, and how quickly it was adopted by testers, developers, and subject-matter experts.

HP LoadRunner 11.52: a demonstration of how much fun load testing can be

Session ID: TB1578
Speakers: Shane Evans (HP), Silvia Siqueira (HP)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 3:00 PM

In this session, the HP LoadRunner product and R&D teams will demonstrate its new features. Whether you’ve never seen LoadRunner in action or you’re an expert user, you’ll enjoy this demonstration and learn a lot about the latest enhancements. Come see what’s so fun about LoadRunner.

[attachment url=”https://www.myloadtest.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated-resources/hp-discover-2013-tb1578-evans.pdf”]TB1578: HP LoadRunner 11.52 – a demonstration of how much fun load testing can be[/attachment]

Going mobile: Keys to the successful performance of your mobile application

Session ID: TB2412
Speakers: Antoine Aymer (HP), Shane Evans (HP)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 4:30 PM

Is your application mobile-ready? How will it perform when you release it into production? Will your users love it or hate it? Join this session to understand the challenges of deploying quality applications on mobile platforms. And learn about various solutions and approaches that will help you make sure that your application will perform as expected from day one.

This may have actually been presented by John Jeremiah (HP) and Amichai Lesser (Shunra). I think the official session listing was incorrect.

End-to-end performance testing using HP Service Virtualization

Session ID: TB2692
Speaker: Ferhan Kilical (HP)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 12 Jun 4:30 PM

Even today, software quality organizations are faced with the challenge of end-to-end testing–more so when it comes to performance-testing distributed applications. While the concept of software simulators shadowed the challenges of performing end-to-end testing, the reliability and accuracy of such tools has always been questionable. 67% of organizations have access to 50% or fewer of the systems needed to do their testing. HP Service Virtualization eliminates those challenges. See how leveraging virtualization technologies can extend testing coverage and accuracy by removing the boundaries and constraints that are often inherently attributed to performance testing. Hear about best practices and gain insight into benefits from applications in the field.

Thursday (June 13th)

Performance testing beyond basics: HP LoadRunner protocols under the covers

Session ID: TB1579
Speaker: Shane Evans (HP)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 9:30 AM

HP LoadRunner supports a large number of environments, including simple and complex platforms (such as mobile, cloud, hybrid and more). Attend this session to learn from the product team how you can expand your performance testing capabilities with simple tips on protocols. It will be a great opportunity to connect with the product team.

[attachment url=”https://www.myloadtest.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated-resources/hp-discover-2013-tb1579-evans.pdf”]TB1579: Performance testing beyond basics – HP LoadRunner protocols under the covers[/attachment]

Applications: mobile performance testing

Session ID: RT3112
Speakers: Wilson Mar (HP), Ilan Shufer (HP)
Session Type: Roundtable
Time: 13 Jun 9:30 AM

If you’re not already testing mobile applications, you can be sure you soon will be. Mobile application testing is as challenging as it is important, so this roundtable will give you the opportunity to discuss best practices and solutions for effectively building and executing mobile performance tests. We will discuss current mobile market trends and focus specifically on mobile performance testing approaches that work. Products discussed: Load Runner, Performance Center

As this was a roundtable (discussion) session, there were no slides.

Applications: Performance Center

Session ID: RT3115
Speaker: Gurmeen Aneja (HP), Shlomi Zalma (HP)
Session Type: Roundtable
Time: 13 Jun 11:00 AM

Are you managing performance testing across your enterprise? Do you try to schedule, share, and maximize the use of performance testing resources? Then join this engaging roundtable to discuss best practices and approaches to building and running an enterprise performance testing team. We will cover processes, procedures, metrics, and common challenges that you might encounter as you build and run your enterprise performance testing center of excellence. Products discussed: Performance Center

As this was a roundtable (discussion) session, there were no slides.

Applications: Service Virtualization

Session ID: RT3117
Speakers: Ferhan Kilical (HP), Mirek Novotny (HP)
Session Type: Roundtable
Time: 13 Jun 11:00 AM

Applications are becoming more and more complex and relying on a broader number of reusable services. While this modular, service-oriented construction of applications aids in the delivery of more agile development and rapid releases, it also increases the possibility that testers must wait for service dependencies to become ready, available, or stable, thereby creating bottlenecks in application delivery and quality. In addition, many third-party services may require a “pay per transaction” rule which increases costs associated with iterative development and testing. Service virtualization software can strip away these dependencies by allowing developers and testers to create “virtual” versions of these services and speed up test cycles. Products discussed: HP Service Virtualization

As this was a roundtable (discussion) session, there were no slides.

Introduction to mobile-performance testing

Session ID: DT3338
Speaker: Wilson Mar (HP)
Session Type: Demo Theater
Time: 13 Jun 12:00 PM

Are you new to mobile performance testing? Then explore and learn where and how to start. Performance-testing experts will reveal the key pieces and parts of performance testing, so you’ll learn how to start a mobile performance test, plan your test, create and execute the test, and understand the results.

[attachment url=”https://www.myloadtest.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated-resources/hp-discover-2013-dt3338-mar.pdf”]DT3338: Introduction to mobile-performance testing[/attachment] [attachment url=”https://www.myloadtest.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated-resources/hp-discover-2013-dt3338-mar.pptx”]DT3338: Introduction to mobile-performance testing[/attachment]

Note that the PPT slides have been updated with notes, and they are the same slides that were used for session HOL3330

Soap UI Pro vs. Service Test

Session ID: TB3150
Speaker: Azfar Sajid (VIP Consulting)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 12:30 PM

Your company has adopted agile development methodology. You are tasked to test headless services developed during the initial phases of the release before GUI work commences. Do you have the right expertise and experience to test web services and APIs? You search the internet and find SOAP UI, which is free but has a steep learning curve. Do you upgrade to the SOAP UI Pro version midstream or should you have considered HP’s UFT Service Test from the start? Hear the pros and cons of using SoapUI vs. Service Test. Get better educated and make an informed decision when selecting the right tool for the job.

Increasing your system capacity using LoadRunner and QTP

Session ID: TB4494
Speaker: Gilles Sebagh (HP)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 12:30 PM

Facing rapid business growth, Alberta Health Services (AHS) had to scale its Oracle e-business suite system supporting 700 users to 5,500 users in short period of time. The challenge was to identify the current system’s bottlenecks that prevented AHS from growing its user base. Learn how HP Professional Services helped AHS evaluate the performance of Oracle 12.1.3 against 12.1.1, measure the performance improvements, and identify the bottlenecks to enable growth.

Key imperatives and best practices for enabling continuous integration

Session ID: DT2950
Speakers: Shamim Ahmed (HP), Anant Hariharan (HP)
Session Type: Demo Theater
Time: 13 Jun 1:30 PM

Continuous integration (CI) is a key enabler for agile dev-ops in the application lifecycle. Successful implementation of CI is absolutely essential for modern applications such as mobile. However, successful deployment of CI requires process discipline as well as collaborative use of multiple, often disparate technologies. Hear about best practices and imperatives to implement successful, continuous integration supported by HP Software ALM tools. These include: “shift left,” synchronized dev and QA, automated test management, agile environments, and smart virtualization. Learn how these principles have been applied successfully via real-world customer case studies.

Cracking the correlation code

Session ID: TB3265
Speaker: Megan Shelton (Nationwide)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 2:00 PM

Correlation can be a tough skill to master, but it is essential if you want to create useful and reliable scripts. This session will take you beyond automatic correlation, showing you how to identify the values that must be correlated, which correlation function to use, and what to look for if you suspect your correlations may not be working properly.

Spike It Cloud style with LoadRunner SaaS

Session ID: TB3274
Speaker: David Guimbellot (Orasi)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 2:00 PM

Marketing promotions are challenging customers to interact with their web devices in short time windows. Orasi Software helped an IT team to prepare for a really big event. Find out how they used HP LoadRunner SaaS to run a broad range of worst case simulations utilizing virtual generators and controllers on Amazon Web Services. Hear about the late nights in preparation as they worked around the Cyber Monday and Black Friday network storms. Listen in to hear about the optimizations they were able to achieve as they stress tested in-production.

[attachment url=”https://www.myloadtest.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated-resources/hp-discover-2013-tb3274-guimbellot.pdf”]TB3274: Spike It Cloud style with LoadRunner SaaS[/attachment]

Waterfall to agile and continuous delivery

Session ID: BB3028
Speakers: Bynum Matthews (Acxiom), Perry Thomas (Orasi)
Session Type: Business Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 2:00 PM

Many development organizations are in the process of trying to transition from old-world, waterfall-type development to a new, more responsive, agile development process. Acxiom found itself thrust into this position to keep up with competition and industry trends. Its testing organization found itself ill equipped to meet the needs of this changing landscape. Through the integration of HP tools and collaboration with Orasi–an HP partner skilled at leveraging the HP automation tools–Acxiom was able to transform its organization, meeting the needs of a changing landscape and setting the standard for success in future development projects. Hear how the integration of HP tools and Orasi resources aided Acxiom in the transition and allowed it to deliver in shorter timeframes and drive continuous delivery of tested software.

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance: first day to benefit dollar

Session ID: TB3384
Speakers: John Gregory (Northwestern Mutual), Joe McCabe (Northwestern Mutual)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 2:00 PM

Hear executives from Northwestern Mutual (NM) describing their journey and success stories as early adopters of HP Service Virtualization (SV). The initial success virtualizing potential claims enhancement reduced deployment costs–surpassing the initial investment in SV. Find out how the SV implementation accelerates quality project delivery at NM by building the services without requiring physical infrastructure or resources to validate proposed changes. Learn about basic concepts for SV and the implementation of a service virtualization strategy.

Learn how to do performance testing on mobile

Session ID: HOL3330
Speakers: Wilson Mar (HP), Igor Markov (HP), Shlomi Zalma (HP)
Session Type: Hands-on Lab
Time: 13 Jun 3:00 PM

Join HP product experts for a two-hour, hands-on exploration of new features in the latest release of HP LoadRunner load-testing software. We’ll provide the guidelines, and you’ll do the driving. Don’t miss this fun opportunity to learn just how easy load-testing of web applications can be.

[attachment url=”https://www.myloadtest.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated-resources/hp-discover-2013-hol3330-mar.pdf”]HOL3330: Learn how to do performance testing on mobile[/attachment]

Note: This is basically the same slide deck that was used for session DT3338. If you look at that session, you will find a PPT version of the slide deck that has been updated with notes.

Get dirty with diagnostics: agile performance tuning at the lowest level

Session ID: TB2958
Speaker: Adam Reincke (JDS Australia)
Session Type: Technical Breakout
Time: 13 Jun 3:30 PM

Learn how to get your hands dirty with diagnostics and find out why your transaction times are breaking SLAs with a single user. Hear a step-by-step walkthrough of how HP Diagnostics can be harnessed with agile to minimize time pressure, cost, and risk to your next .Net or Java application release. Avoid frantic, last minute efforts to debug that are often unfocused and costly. By using HP Diagnostics in an agile development and test cycle you can identify, fix, and retest code-level performance issues before they hurt the most.

[attachment url=”https://www.myloadtest.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated-resources/hp-discover-2013-tb2958-reincke.pdf”]TB2958: Get dirty with diagnostics – agile performance tuning at the lowest level[/attachment]

Adam has also recorded a YouTube video of his presentation titled “Agile Performance Tuning with HP Diagnostics“.

Don’t forget to have a look at some of the presentations from HP Discover 2012.