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When we talk about software testing, the first thing that comes to our mind is testing the application against its features and functions, right? Developers are highly concerned about the behavior of their application and induce multiple tests to validate the functionality. However, it is not just the modulated form of testing that needs to be dealt with. In addition to testing the basic functionality of the developed application, one also needs to test the performance of the developed software application, when exposed to external conditions.
In simple terms, performance testing is one form of software testing that aims to determine whether or not; the developed application can sustain the load. The sole purpose of conducting performance tests is to see how does the website performs in terms of speed, is it reliable and can the website robustly perform in the external world.
For developers that are concerned about the application’s efficiency, conducting performance testing serves the purpose best. Performance testing reveals:
- The page, network and the browser response times
- Processing times of server request
- The ability to handle concurrent requests
- Memory consumption of the processor determining errors encountered.
Does Performance Testing Really Matter?
Having that said, do you really need performance testing? Can you not go without this, like you have developed an excellent software, equipped with extraordinary features, tested and verified, functionally by the entire team. It appears as if the software is ready to hit the market and create records.
Well, you can definitely skip this line and move ahead with the software launch. But let me tell you what will happen when you do not test your software for its performance.
Consider that you have just launched the software, and surprisingly, it experiences enormous traffic. Say, 1000 visitors in a day. Of course, your website is running efficiently. However, with time the visibility rises, and so does the traffic count. From a thousand to two, three, … and it continues till it reaches tens of thousands. Then, a sudden rise and the application shuts down abruptly. Wondering why?
Evidently, the website wasn’t prepared to handle such massive requests simultaneously. With more and more users accessing the site, the speed started deteriorating, and one fine day, it stops responding. Had you tested your website against the speed and performance under extreme conditions, your software would have successfully executed, irrespective of the altering environments.
So, what do you think about adopting performance testing services within your organization?
Goals of Software Performance Testing
Knowing what performance testing is and why to do this matters, we now head towards the importance, or the role played by performance testing services in the course of the software development life cycle. Of all the various aspects catered by performance testing, the top three ones include:
(1) Page Speed: Using a software application, the page load speed matters the most. Suppose you are in the middle of making a payment, and the page speed reduces. You have initiated the payment but with no confirmation. This would lead to poor customer experience and odds are they will never return to the application. On the contrary, if the page has a decent speed, the user would not leave the site. And not to forget that a slower website falls off the search engine rankings, deteriorating the visibility of the same. Hence, it is advocated that software developers incorporate performance testing services to ensure that the website thrives in abrupt conditions.
(2) Scalability: Second comes to the scalability of the software application. Along with testing the speed of the website, it is essential to know how would the same behave, if you added another CPU or how would the load shift with additional hardware?
(3) Stability: You would not want to shut down during high traffic days. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, all are round the corner, and a sudden gush of visitors would affect the stability of the website. Performance testing services ensure that no matter what the situation is, the website can effectively handle and work alongside. Even a one-time breakdown matters, let alone the entire day shutdown. Here is where stress testing seems to be important. Imagine, you are collecting money for an event, and the site crashes due to huge traffic. Not only do you lose visitors but also money.
We think by now, you would have been convinced of integrating performance testing services within your SDLC. So let’s add more to your knowledge bank and see what are the different kinds of performance testing and what benefit do they lay on your application and business.
Types Of Performance Testing
Performance testing, though a single term, entails several other features. There are a series of three tests in total, done to verify the website efficiency.
- Performance Testing
- Load Testing
- Stress Testing
It starts with testing or figuring out the responsiveness of the software application. It is not a one-time process but done time and time, at regular intervals, to detect where does the problem lies and then working on that part to fix the performance issues. Testing, at the end of the application, isn’t suggested as if the software has serious speed issues, modifying post-development turns a tedious and time-consuming process. Apparently, performance testing validates the reliability of the software when exposed to unfavorable conditions.
Advantages:
(1)Identify mismatches and fix them before releasing the final version of the product.
(2)Improves the capacity planning efforts
(3)Determines whether the software maps user expectations.
(4)Identify and fix functional errors before time.
Load testing is basically done to test the endurance of the developed application. For instance, the website might perform well with a thousand visitors but fail to process the request of a hundred thousand, all at the same time. Conducting load tests ensures that the application can perform seamlessly under varied load conditions without failure. Also, load testing determines the page load time or the speed of the page under significant load conditions and instances of huge traffic. This helps developers modify the application to stand the extreme load.
Advantages:
(1) Validating the needed throughput to deal with peak load.
(2) Authenticates the efficiency of the hardware.
(3) Address the sufficiency of the application’s load balancer
(4) Spot issues related to software concurrency.
(5) Possibly estimate load capacity
(6) See whether the developed application can multitask.
This type of testing is done to locate the point at which the software starts misbehaving or the extent up to which the site can perform efficiently. Software testers undertake stress testing to see after how much of traffic will site the break, and whether or not, it reinstates itself after crashing. Having knowledge about the stress of the website gives developers an idea of the performance of the site and embed measures to make the application strong enough to work under stress conditions. The testing would help developers gain insights on the bugs and errors that arise under stress conditions and fix them to improve user trust.
Advantages:
(1) Determines if the software would crash in adverse conditions.
(2) Showcase the maximum load capacity of the application.
(3) Avoid application vulnerabilities
(4) Predetermine application failures
The Final Word
Whether it is a mobile app or a desktop application, employing performance testing services is a must. From scalability to speed, reliability, and robustness, the testing services detect all. While this can be done manually, the present-day testers embed automation to perform software performance testing and enhance results, improving the efficiency of the software and testing on the go.
