Software Testing - Performance Testing

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A software is developed keeping in mind its various usages. The performance testing is done to confirm if the software is able to perform as expected under normal load conditions. It is mainly conducted to identify robustness of the software with respect to its stability, sensitivity, and reactivity while bearing a specific workload.

What is Software Performance Testing?

The performance testing is performed to analyze the performance, quality, ability, and scalability of a software. It identifies the issues, and gauges the software performance under different loads, and situations. It also confirms that the software has the capacity to deal with an anticipated count of users, and transactions.

Types of Software Performance Testing

The different types of the software performance testing are listed below −

Load Testing

It is performed to evaluate the behavior of the software when multiple users are using it at the same time.

Stress Testing

It is performed to measure capacity of the software under the bigger load conditions which is above the normal limits.

Spike Testing

It is performed to measure the capability of the software with unanticipated spikes in traffic.

Soak Testing

It is performed to measure capacity of the software under a continuous load over a long duration.

Endurance Testing

It is performed to measure the response of a certified software in simulated conditions for sometime under a particular load.

Volume Testing

It is performed to validate the functionality of a software with a specific amount of load.

Scalability Testing

It is performed to validate the efficiency of a software after it is scaled up to handle increase in user load.

Why is Software Performance Testing Used?

The software performance testing is used for the reasons listed below −

• The performance testing is to eradicate the parameters that result in congestion in the performance of the software.
• The performance testing identifies the parameters that need to be improved before the software is moved to production.
• The performance testing makes the software more robust, reliable, and stable in the production.
• The performance testing is done to measure the performance, and scalability of software under different circumstances, and loads.
• The performance testing identifies issues, gauges the performance of the software, and confirms if it has the ability to work with an anticipated count of transactions, and users.

Steps Should be Followed for Software Performance Testing

The steps to be followed to perform the software performance testing are listed below −

Step 1 − Determine an environment to run the performance tests. Also set up the tools, configurations, devices, and software that are required to complete the performance testing.

Step 2 − Identify the performance parameters to be measured at the time of testing. It includes computing the response time, throughput etc.

Step 3 − Have a test plan which includes various use cases including the behavior of the users, and the type of data to be used.

Step 4 − Make the already identified test environment ready with the required configurations.

Step 5 − Develop and execute the performance test cases as per the test plan. Evaluate the results of the test execution.

Step 6 − After analyzing the test results, fine tune the tests and run them again to determine if there are any changes in the outcomes.

Step 7 − Repeat the step 6, until better results are observed and the testers observe a satisfactory performance of the software.

Advantages of Software Performance Testing

The advantages of the software performance testing are listed below −

• The performance testing identifies problems namely slow return of database queries, inadequate memory, network traffic etc. Thus the developers fine tune the required parameters so that the software can handle an anticipated number of users, and transactions.
• The performance testing enhances the softwares scalability by determining if it has the ability to work with the increasing load for sometime specially for web applications(where there is a high probability of increase in the volume of the traffic).
• The performance testing detects the probable problems like higher rate of errors, bad response time etc that may come up due to huge load. Thus it works towards making the software more stable, and reliable in the production environment.
• The performance testing identifies potential risks prior to deployment, and reduces the probability of failures, and below par performance in the production.
• The performance testing identifies defects in the early stages of the software development life cycle(SDLC), thereby making the process of fixing defects cheap.
• The performance testing brings the end users satisfaction, good feedback, trust, and loyalty on the software.
• The performance testing prepares to plan for unusual scenarios of very heavy load or different usage trends in the future.
• The performance testing verifies if the software follows all the regulations, and compliances.
• The performance testing brings better understanding of the overall working of the software which helps to detect the likely problems, and to improve its design.
• The performance testing improves the speed, load handling capacity, and robustness of the software.
• The performance testing detects, tracks, and fixes problems that are encountered in the software.
• The performance testing perfects the software and enables multiple users to use it simultaneously.

Disadvantages of Software Performance Testing

The disadvantages of the software performance testing are listed below −

• The performance testing requires adequate resources such as hardware, and software to simulate heavy load. It is a time taking, and costly process.
• The performance testing is not easy to perform and needs experience, domain knowledge, automation expertise, and debugging skills of the testers to work with the tests. An inexperienced team who does not have enough resources may not be able to perform it.
• The performance testing only verifies the performance of the software under stress circumstances, and may not detect all the issues.
• If the performance testing environment does not have the same configuration as the production, then the test results may be incorrect.
• It is not always easy to simulate the real life use cases, and assume how the users would interact with the software.
• The performance testing produces huge data sets, and it is complicated to analyze them to determine the root cause of the performance problems.
• Some performance bottlenecks only come up at the real time usage of the software in the production.
• A shallow software performance in the production impacts business.

Tools used for Software Performance Testing

The tools used for the software performance testing are listed below:

• BlazeMaster
• Load Runner
• Web Load
• Gatling
• Apache JMeter

Attributes of Software Performance Testing

The attributes of the software performance testing are scalability, stability, speed, and reliability

Conclusion

This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software Performance Testing. Weve started with describing what is software performance testing, what are the different types of the software performance testing, why software performance testing is used, what are the steps followed to perform the software performance testing, what are the advantages of the software performance testing, what are the disadvantages of the software performance testing, what are the tools used for the software performance testing, and what are the attributes of the software performance testing. This equips you with in-depth knowledge of Software Performance Testing. It is wise to keep practicing what youve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.