The Senior Performance Test Analyst is a senior level position in the Quality Assurance Department within Information Services. The Senior Performance Test Analyst will be required to have interaction at all levels of the organization and will lead and champion the Performance Testing & Monitoring Service for organization. He/she will be able to elicit, analyze, and validate technical and business requirements for performance testing purposes, and translate these requirements into test scenarios. He/she will develop test plans and the relevant QA documentation for testing purposes, and will prepare and execute on assigned testing deliverables as required.

As a champion of the performance testing & monitoring service, the Senior Performance Test analyst will work actively with development and technical support teams to ensure continual focus on performance and scalability of our critical business systems through both during development/test cycles and in production.

The Senior Performance Test Analyst works closely with the Manager Testing Services and Performance Test Analysts to ensure performance testing best practices are being followed throughout the SDLC, and is a leader in contributing to the continued improvement of the performance testing service. Additionally, this position requires collaboration with application teams, database administrators, platform & network analysts in both analyzing and suggesting remediation for performance issues encountered.

Performance Test Strategy

• Create performance test approach and strategy from system requirements and design documents.
• Analyze Non Functional Requirements and Service Level Agreements; liaise with business analysts to gather inputs to the Performance Test Strategy.
• Understand those business parameters which could influence performance; e.g. data sizes, network bandwidth, scalability, etc.
• Engage with the solution design teams to understand the technical aspects of any solution.
• Establish verifiable performance benchmarks for system and system components.
• Assist in identifying clear performance requirements and measurement criteria that can be validated.
• Assist in the analysis, design and development of a performance roadmap and implementation based upon a current vs. future state.

Performance Test Design, Execution and Analysis

• Lead effort to identify test cases and map them to performance/system/integration requirements for appropriate testing coverage.
• Create and maintain test artifacts (plans, reports, dashboards) and ensure they meet expectations.
• Execute test cases to meet required execution targets to keep the project on schedule.
• Create required test data and data loads for each performance test run.
• Analyze data gathered from performance test runs and identify areas for potential performance improvements.
• Recommend performance tuning in different areas: system, platform, application, etc. as necessary in collaboration with Service Managers.
• Review test results in test tools and validate that test cases are complete and of high quality.
• Create Gate Review (Test Readiness Review, Production Readiness Review, Performance Test Exit reports) materials and presentations/deliverables as appropriate.
• Be responsible for data collection, solution performance oversight, business impact analyses, benchmarks, modeling and forecasting.
• Correlate complex performance information into simple actionable information and create performance tests to best predict customer experience under load.
• Execute tests in an organized manner keeping track of all parameters of each test and their results.
• Develop and execute ongoing performance, scale, and endurance tests relied upon for certification of product release.
• Develop and execute ongoing performance, scale, and endurance production tests to proactively identify potential production performance declines.
• Coordinate and track performance test defects to resolution.
• Able to develop time/effort estimates and risk assessments.
• Understand and own environment conditions/variables that may impact test results. Able to setup and run batch jobs as required (daily, monthly, year-end processes, etc.), fully understands purpose and dependencies of processes. Able to effectively communicate and discuss environment problems with technical members and team members.
• Communicate any testing issues and/or risks to QA Manager in a timely fashion.

Testing Standards/Practices and Team Effectiveness

• Understand common test and project methodologies and processes, as well as software development lifecycle approaches, and applies them to Non Functional Testing.
• Drive continuous improvements into the Performance Testing process.
• Provide regular knowledge sharing and coaching on performance best practices throughout the organization.
• Understand and follow standard practices and the use of tools and templates for creating Quality Assurance documentation. Thorough knowledge of technical and functional processes within the HP ALM application.
• Lead Peer Review of team deliverables, contributing to the development of consistent and effective documentation that adheres to team standards and templates.
• Provide mentorship and training at appropriate times to assist junior and intermediate performance test analysts when required.
• Provide support/recommendations to development teams for ensuring design for performance is considered.
• Control scope of work (self & team members) effectively for assigned project (prioritize, identifies potential issues with estimates or deadlines early), proactively communicating status/issues. Identifies and solutions impacts to assignment deadlines and schedules.
• Recognized for knowledge in most applications as is required to support Performance Testing.
• Self-motivated with ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Strong deductive reasoning, attention to detail, persistence, patience, and creativity are assets.
• Proactive and creative problem solver with proven ability to multitask and manage tight deadlines.

Experience:

• 10 + years work experience in Performance testing.
• Experience in testing enterprise distributed systems is strongly desired.
• Must have in-depth knowledge and experience with application performance testing, including performance test tool utilization, scripting, building and executing scenarios, collecting and analyzing performance metrics.
• Experience performing application performance monitoring and end-to-end system performance analysis.
• Strong technical ability with knowledge of systems software, including architecture and infrastructure components.
• Knowledge of performance bottlenecks and end-to-end performance measures (server response time, memory and CPU utilization, throughput, latency, etc.).
• Experience with profiling, database performance analysis, capacity sizing or balancing and high availability solutions.
• Ability to troubleshoot issues in the performance test environment.
• Experience installing, configuring and using selected application performance tools.
• Experience with performance test tool suites, advanced knowledge with Visual Studio Team Test and Team Foundation Server.
• Skills and experience required to directly interface with subject matter experts and technical groups (architects, system designers, operations, etc.) to resolve problems encountered during performance testing.
• Good knowledge of SQL Server databases and SQL queries.
• Ability/flexibility to assist manual testing team when necessary.
• Experience with full lifecycle of Software Development.
• Have strong communication and documentation skills.
• Innovative, creative and extremely responsive with a strong sense of urgency, ability to multitask.
• Experience building strong client relationships and establishing credibility.
• Ability to translate between business and technical viewpoints.

Education and Training:

• University, college or technical degree in Information Technology or business. Alternatively, extensive proven track record in the primary position disciplines within Financial Sector environment.
• Experience working with ITIL (preference for ITIL certification).

Licenses/Certificates:

• Technical Certifications/Designations (e.g. CSQA, CSTE, CTFL, CTM, CSTP, SSBB) are valued, but not required.

Any other special requirements necessary to do the job:

May be required to work outside normal business hours to meet project deadlines or support implementations. Note that Servus Credit Union operates a province wide network of over 100 branches in 62 communities, including 3 regional centres which may result in management of teams in geographical dispersed locations. Weekend or shift work, available to travel, etc.

The business may from time to time ask for branch and/or department support for special projects and/or areas experiencing staff shortages. All employees may be asked to volunteer to assist in areas of need during these times. These assignments could result in a change of hours, location, and/or travel.

Why Servus Credit Union? We live our values in how we do business and how we treat our employees. Servus Credit Union is one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. Servus is committed to being socially responsible and living the co-operative values. Through our operations, we strive to make a positive impact on our economy, the environment and society. We know that our employees are our most valuable assets so we offer ongoing growth and career advancement and we reward employees for their hard work and achievements.