Synthetic Monitoring consists of regularly browsing a target website in order to :

• from monitor the proper functioning of a typical journey and to calculate its availability rate (e.g. "it was possible to browse and buy on the ecommerce website 99.5% of the time this month")
• alert in real time website managers in the event of a website malfunction, via email, SMS or other notifications with a detailed report of the incident containing both a screenshot of the error encountered and a precise record of the page loading in the browser.
• from measure and record page load times according to several key criteria (time to load the first byte, Speed Index, time to load the entire page, or according to the "Core Web Vitals" Google)
• to analyse each page with a rule engine allowing to list precisely areas for improvement to make the website fast (e.g. to improve the loading time of the home page it is a priority to optimise such and such images, and to reduce the javascript code of such and such file, etc.).

As you can see, for a single feature, the "User Journeys", Quanta will actually group together here at least 4 major features allowing the manager of a web application to ensure a good experience on it.

The notion of "standard journey" is central to the use of Synthetic Monitoring. Indeed, in order to monitor and optimise the website, a choice must be made one or more reference scenarios. In Quanta, the flexibility in creating these scenarios is extremely important. It is typically possible to do almost anything that a real Internet user might do on the website (e.g. click, position the cursor at a specific point on the page, change the page, check boxes, add a product to the basket, fill in a form, go to the checkout, place an online order, enter a credit card number, etc.).

Here is an example of a typical journey, for an ecommerce website:

These routes can be carried out under a number of different conditions, for example:

• using a browser in Desktop or Mobile
• by simulating aslow (3G) or fast (fibre) network connection
• by deciding whether or not to load the "third parties" (e.g. Google Analytics tags, AB Tasty, etc.)

In most cases, we advise you to choose one or more scenarios representing the majority of uses that are carried out by the user on the website. For example, if it is an ecommerce website, it will be important to test the correct connection to a user account as this is an essential step in the sales tunnel, or the search engine if it is central to navigation on the website.

In this way, if a structural change to the website (e.g. a new production layout, the addition of a tag, etc.) leads to an unexpected malfunction in one of these key stages, Quanta can automatically alert the right people with the corresponding explanations.

The malfunction may not be an operating error, but a severe slowdown. This would lead to a drastic decrease in the user experience and an immediate potential loss of conversion. This is why it is crucial to get the information in real time in this type of situation.