Many performance testing authors, thought leaders, and researchers have spent lots of time trying to figure out what makes a performance testing project successful. They always come up with a whole lot of agreement that, for a performance testing project to be successful, it must have specific goals in mind, and they must work intentionally and deliberately towards achieving those goals.

The nine core principles are Context, Criteria, Design, Instrument or Instrumentation, Script, Execute, Analyze, Report and Iterate. The vast majority of successful performance testers agree that these nine items are, at a minimum, worthy of consideration for every performance testing project. Not at least considering any of these items is very likely to lead to challenges and sometimes outright project failure. That is not to say that every one of these must be executed in the same degree of detail, in the same order, or in the same way on each project.