Cardiac Performance Testing

I intended to post yesterday, but just before lunch my chest started hurting.  Then my left shoulder.  Then my left arm.  Hmmm...

There's a hospital right around the corner, so I asked my boss, Brad Bartz, to drive me over so I could have it checked out.  I thought it would take 30 minutes, but it took 24 hours. My description was pretty convincing, and it turns out the enzyme test needs to be taken about six hours after onset.  That put it just about the time that the treadmill test was no longer available for the day.  So they preferred that I waited around until the next day when I could take the test perhaps as early as 8:00 AM.

It turned out to be 11:00 before I got on the treadmill.  That was an interesting setup; the computer was running an app which was pretty clearly written in Visual Basic.  I thought back to bug triages I'd been through in the VB group and crossed my fingers.  All worked well, however, including my cardio-vascular system.  No heart attack.  A day well wasted.  At least (for some reason) I got a lot of sleep, 12 hours or more.  There wasn't much else to do but read, and I was a little too distracted to read much.

The treadmill test was a great example of performance testing.  First they get a baseline, then ramp up usage gradually and do blood pressure tests periodically as well as continuous EKG as you walk and eventually run.  Then they monitor ramp-down, which was the only big difference I saw between testing software and physiological performance. Maybe something from the experience will suggest an idea in future performance tests design.  I can't think of other non-software perf tests I've witnessed.  I've participated in system automation testing in high-rise buildings and hospitals, but this is strictly functional testing and has nothing to do with performance.  I've participated in emergency communications exercises with ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) and these are sensitive to throughput, but are a little different; we spend a lot more time analyzing the quality of the throughput than the quantity; were the messages accurate and intelligible?  Are the procedures sound?  Does the protocol work as expected?  Etc...

I know there must be other types of performance tests out there.  If anyone knows of some interesting examples, please post a comment.