Guide / 10 min read
From HAR evidence to a defensible performance workload
Translate browser traffic and operational evidence into a workload model without inventing production behavior.
A HAR file describes one or more observed browser sessions. It does not, by itself, describe production arrival rates, concurrency, user mix, pacing, seasonality, or service-level objectives.
A defensible workflow combines HAR journeys with API definitions, production traffic aggregates, logs, topology, known campaigns, and approved NFRs. Missing evidence should remain visible as an assumption requiring review.
Model before scripting
- Identify business journeys and dependent services.
- Separate observed request behavior from inferred user behavior.
- Define baseline, peak, stress, and degradation profiles.
- Validate data isolation, safety limits, and environment capacity.
- Generate and critique the framework-specific script only after model approval.
This order prevents a technically runnable script from being mistaken for a representative performance test.