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How to: Set Think Times to Simulate Human Pausing in a Web Performance Test

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Think time is the time spent by a user perusing a Web page, including viewing the page and determining the next action. Think time does not include the time that is required for a page to load.

When you record a Web performance test, think times are recorded for each Web page. Later, when you run the Web performance test, the think time can be either used or ignored. In the Web Performance Test Results Viewer, use the Think Time button to switch from using think times to not using them.

Think times are very important during load tests because they set the pace of the test. It is important to review the recorded think times of your Web performance tests to make sure they accurately reflect realistic wait times. It is easy to be distracted during a recording session and have unexpectedly long think times that have an adverse effect on a load test. To avoid this problem, you can pause the recorder.

For more information, see Editing Think Times to Simulate Web Site Human Interaction Delays in Load Tests Scenarios.

To change the think time of a request in a Web performance test

  1. Open a Test project that contains a Web performance test.

    For more information about how to create a test project, see How to: Create and Configure Test Projects for Automated Tests.

  2. From the Test project, open a Web performance test. Your Web performance test opens in the Web Performance Test Editor.

    For more information about how to create a Web performance test, see Creating and Editing Web Performance Tests.

  3. In the Web Performance Test Editor, select the request for which you want to change the Think Time property.

  4. In the Properties window, set the Think Time property to an appropriate value, in seconds. To display the Properties window, press F4.

  5. On the File menu, select Save. Click the Run button to run your Web performance test in the Web Performance Test Results Viewer with the new think time.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Change the Think Profile

How to: Set Request Details in a Web Performance Test

Concepts

Running Web Performance Tests

Other Resources

Customizing Web Performance Test Recordings Using Web Performance Test Editor

Editing Think Times to Simulate Web Site Human Interaction Delays in Load Tests Scenarios