Assume you are the Test Manager for a new software release of an e-commerce application.
The server farm consists of six servers providing different capabilities. Each capability is provided through a set of web services.
The requirements specification document contains several SLAs (Service Level Agreements) like the following:
SLA-001: 99.5 percent of all transactions shall have a response time less than five seconds under a load of up-to 5000 concurrent users
The main objective is to assure that all the SLAs specified in the requirements specification document will be met before system release. You decide to apply a risk-based testing strategy and an early risk analysis confirms that performance is high risk. You can count on a well-written requirements specification and on a model of the system behavior under various load levels produced by the system architect.
Which of the following test activities would you expect to be the less important ones to achieve the test objectives in this scenario?