You are viewing the documentation for Blueriq 14. Documentation for other versions is available in our documentation directory.

1     Introduction

The performance tests for Blueriq follow a user-centric approach. Since Blueriq is a platform and not an end-application, a reference application is used to test the performance from a user perspective.

The performance tests focus on Dynamic Case Management applications. DCM applications are based on all 3 Blueriq propositions: Decision Management (decision logic for (automated) decisions), Customer Experience Management (intelligent forms and documents) and Dynamic Case Management (dynamic handling of cases).

The performance tests are based on:

  • A realistic Dynamic Case Management application;
  • A typical infrastructure (hardware, database,…) configuration with 1 application server and a database server;
  • A realistic load (number of users and action they perform) for a single server;

For reporting the performance a standard metric (Apdex) is used that represents the performance from the viewpoint of the end-user. Apdex normalizes the measurements into a single number from 1 to 0 that reflects end-user satisfaction ranging from satisfied to tolerating to frustrating.

With this performance report customers get an insight in what they can expect of the performance of Blueriq applications. In a customer application however, the performance depends on a large number of variables like infrastructure, custom code, Blueriq model, etc. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that appropriate performance tests are performed on the application that is modelled with Blueriq before taking it into production.

2     Reference application

The reference application used for performance testing is a Dynamic Case Management portal for subsidy application for the stimulation of renewable energy. The DCM application consists of a self-service portal for applicants (producers of renewable energy) where they can apply for a specific subsidy (the case), enter the relevant data and follow the progress of the case. For the civil servants (in several roles) of the government agency  the DCM application offers a mid-office portal to support decision making and collaboration in the handling of applications. For the mid-office manager a business activity dashboard is available with management information graphics.

User roles

The application has the following user roles

Role

Description

Applicant

Entrepreneur applying for a grant. Uses a self-service portal for the application.

Intaker

Servant responsible to intake the application

Assessor

Grant application assessor, making the final decision

Advisor

Experts consulted in some scenarios before the application is granted/rejected

Manager

A manager that uses the Business Activity Monitoring dashboard to monitor the cases


Application flow

The application of a subsidy has 3 main phases: Apply (aanvragen), Asses (beoordelen), Grant (uitreiken). Within these main phases the flow of processes and tasks is dynamic. The possible tasks, decisions, milestones and roles are visualized in the following picture (dutch):

Application interface

The user interface of the reference application is fully based on the out-of-the-box Blueriq dashboards.

 

Screen

Content

Applicant Dashboard

The personal dashboard of the applicant with:

  • Widget with applicant information
    (Aggregate, 15 attributes)
  • Widget with all the cases and filter on applicant (AQ_AggregateList)

Applicant Case dashboard

A dashboard with an overview of the actual case:

  • Widget with applicant information
    (Aggregate, 15 attributes)
  • Widget with case information (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with subcase information(AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with available tasks for this case (AQ_WorkList)
  • Widget with documents for this case
    (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with the Notes for this case
  • Widget with the History of the case

Application Form

A dashboard with an intelligent form for entering application information:

  • Widget with available tasks (AQ_WorkList)
  • Widget with documents for this case (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with the Notes for this case
  • Widget with the History of the case
  • Widget with Form with # data entry fields

Knowledge Worker Overview dashboard

(Knowledge Worker = Intaker or Assessor)

The personal dashboard of the knowledge worker with:

  • Widget with tasks for knowledge worker ordered by priority (AQ_Worklist)
  • Widget with cases for knowledge worker filtered on status (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with cases that are not assigned filtered on status (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with advice cases (AQ_AggregateList)

 

Knowledge Worker Case dashboard

A dashboard for the knowledge worker with an overview of the actual case:

  • Widget with applicant information (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with case information  (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with subcase information
  • Widget with available tasks for this case (AQ_WorkList)
  • Widget with relevant stakeholders of this case (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with documents for this case (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with the Notes for this case
  • Widget with the History of the case

Knowledge worker tasks

A dashboard with a form for entering application relevant information:

  • Widget with available tasks (AQ_WorkList)
  • Widget with documents for this case (AQ_AggregateList)
  • Widget with the Notes for this case
  • Widget with the History of the case
  • Widget wit Form with # data entry fields

Manager BAM dashboard

A basic manager information dashboard with 4 graph widgets:

  • A widget with a doughnut chart with the total number of (various) applications
  • A widget with a radar chart with the number of applications per month
  • A widget with a bar chart with all cases and there status
  • A widget with a pie chart with the allocation of all cases


Database contents

The database of the typical Dynamic Case Management systems consists of ~100.000 cases:

  • Cases
    - 99.782 cases in database
  • Tasks
    - 947.804 tasks in database
  • Aggregates
    - 115.859 aggregates in database
  • Trace
    - 951.000 entries in the trace database

Decision complexity

The decision logic in the reference application is kept simple and consists of straightforward validations on pages, preconditions on tasks, milestones etc.

Timer

The reference application includes a timer to re-evaluate tasks. For testing purposes this timer is set hourly to simulate additional load on the system.

3     Simulating application usage

The simulation which is executed on the application during the performance test scenario depends on three variables:

  • the user load that must be simulated on the system during the test
  • the activities these users perform (application scenarios)
  • the total duration of the test execution

User load

The user load on the application is based on an estimation of 1.000.000 cases per year:

1.000.000 cases / year

2739 cases / day 

~225 cases / hour  (distributed over 12 hours daily (9-21)

Application scenarios

In a Dynamic Case Management application each case can be handled in a unique way. To simulate different kind of flows of user activities, the performance tests defines a number of different user scenarios as described in the table below. The total user load (225 cases / hour) is distributed over these scenarios as indicated in the column #Cases/hour.

 

Scenario

Description

# Cases / hour

1

Fully automated handling (rejection) of grant application

Straight-through handling of an application. Only activities by the Applicant.

22

2

Handling by assessor

Handling of the case by the Intaker and Assessor

55

3

Handling by assessor with additional advice by Advisor

Same as scenario 2 but with an additional step by an Advisor.

66

4

Manager views business activity dashboard

Not really the handling of a case but a manager opening the BAM dashboard.

5               

5

Handling by assessor (with Caselist)

Same as scenario 2, but with a Caselist

55

6

Handling by assessor with timers

 

22

 

Total

 

225


Duration of test execution

The current performance test is a stability test and runs for 2 hours with a virtual user load as on a typical business day (no stress test).

4     Test environment

For the performance tests a typical hardware configuration is used that consists of two separate servers for the runtime and database. The specification of the test environment is described in the test reports.

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