  One problem with load test quality, almost always overlooked, is the
potential for the load generator's user thread pool to sync up and dispatch
queries in bunches rather than independently from each other like real users
initiate their requests. A spiky launch pattern misrepresents workload flow as
well as yields erroneous application response time statistics. This paper
describes what a real user request timing pattern looks like, illustrates how
to identify it in the load generation environment, and exercises a free
downloadable tool which measures how well the load generator is mimicking the
timing pattern of real web user requests.
