The present invention enables a performance testing framework that enables multiple components working together to test a deployed application automatically in an unattended manner and to analyze the test results easily. At very high level, the performance framework can run performance tests on a tested system with one or more variations without user intervention and save the test results and configuration metadata to a database for later analysis. A goal navigator is operable to examine the analysis result of the plurality of test runs against a plurality of performance goals and determine the next set of the configuration properties to test with. This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects, and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures, and the claims.