[Initiative]: Scale and performance testing guidance
Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
@didiViking is already working on this.
Since Sep 14, 2026.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Active
- Domain
- documentation, performance, testing
Research direction
Start with the initiative description and review the cited DD reports, including cncf/toc#2198, #2057, #2038, and #1165, to compare the performance-testing findings. Define guidance by the listed project types, covering methodology, reproducibility, published results, and reviewer evaluation. Done means the guidance document, example benchmark configurations, and DD checklist update are completed.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Name
Scale and performance testing guidance for CNCF projects
Short description
Define performance testing expectations by project type so DD reviewers and projects have clear benchmarks to target.
Responsible group
TAG Operational Resilience
Does the initiative belong to a subproject?
No
Subproject name
Primary contact
TBD — TAG Operational Resilience lead
Additional contacts
@angellk (TOC Chair, DD finding source)
Origin
DD finding (automated)
Initiative description
This initiative is a request from the TOC. During due diligence reviews, the TOC evaluates projects against incubation and graduation criteria. When the same finding appears across multiple projects, it signals an ecosystem-wide gap that would be better addressed through standardized guidance than repeated per-project recommendations.
This finding has appeared in 9 of 42 DD reports (21%) scanned over the last 5 years, including cncf/toc#2198 (HAMi), cncf/toc#2057 (Kyverno), cncf/toc#2038 (Microcks), cncf/toc#1165 (KubeEdge), and others. The most recent DD to surface this was Kyverno graduation DD (merged 2026-03-17).
DDs frequently recommend performance benchmark data, scale testing, or load testing documentation, but there is no standardized expectation for what constitutes adequate testing by project type. A database operator has different scale testing needs than a CLI tool or a controller. The Kyverno DD specifically called for "more proactive, high-scale performance testing internally" and the HAMi DD recommended "performance benchmark data covering expected overhead and isolation quality across common concurrent workload scenarios."
Scope: Define performance testing expectations segmented by project type (database/storage, controller/operator, CLI tool, library, specification). Include guidance on benchmark methodology, reproducibility, what to publish, and how DD reviewers should evaluate performance testing adequacy. Aligns with TAG Operational Resilience charter scope: "Performance" and "Testing."
Timeline: TBD
Deliverable(s) or exit criteria
- Guidance document: performance and scale testing expectations by project type
- Example benchmark configurations for common project categories
- DD checklist item update — PR to graduation application template
Tracking document for meeting and progress
TBD
- Dominant language
- HTML
- Stars
- 1.9k
- Forks
- 728
- Avg merge
- 4d 9h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 9
Getting set up
- No Dockerfile or Docker Compose file
- No pull request template
- Read the contributing guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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