I'm a newbie at testing. For now, I'm using JMeter to build a test plan, then run it against my java web application. At the moment I just use (average response time, 90% line, throughput, and estimation of CPU/memory used) to give an approxiate estimation about how the web works.
Is there any kind of quality check-list to know that a web application is working fine? I have tried to search the web, but found no clue.
UPDATE: About my test-plan, it simulate a case that 200 users access my web application at the same time, and follow a typical work flow: login, check out goods, download documents... I'm trying to make the test as real as it should be, so that I will know if there's any potential problem.
I also added "user think-time", to make the test more realistic.
It sounds like you are on the right track.
The response time is going to give you a broad measurement of how acceptabel the performance of your app is going to be for endusers.
You will want to get maximum response time as well.
Otherwise it comes down to how well is your hardware platform handling the load. That is a bit harder. Basically you are looking for bottlenecks in the server where load is slowing things down. You may not get a bottle neck simulating 200 users with think times.
If the CPU and Memory stats are not high, check the disk queue lengths to make sure there is no disk issues.
The general process is then
Is the performance measure by my response times okay?
Yes: Increase load and try again.
No: Then what part of my hardware is causing the problem at this load.
You can stop when you are happy that your website is going to meet the expected or you realise there is a performance problem.
It is often tempting to add more hardware to a poorly performing website, but you can get a lot of mileage by changing the code to make the application more efficient.
The load test will helpfully tell you which parts of your app are worst and you can focus attention on them.