Capture the Logical and Physical Architecture
In this step, you identify the relationship between the application and the structure of the hardware and software. This information is critical when you are designing performance tests to address specific areas of concern, and when you are trying to locate a performance bottleneck.
A poor understanding of system architecture can lead to adverse affects on performance testing later in the project and can add time to the tuning process. To capture the logical and physical architecture, the performance tester generally meets with technical stakeholders, architects, and administrators for both the production and test environments. This is critical because designing an effective test strategy requires the performance tester to be aware of which components or tiers of the system communicate with one another and how they do so. It is also valuable to understand the basic structure of the code and contributing external software.