What is Performance testing? The term refers to a software testing practice. It is performed to determine how a system is performing. It tests the system’s responsiveness and stability under a specific workload.
Explaining Performance Testing
Performance testing is responsible for checking the speed and response time of software. Furthermore, it also monitors a software program’s reliability, scalability, and resource usage, under expected workloads. Performance testing is done to eliminate or resolve performance bottleneck issues.
Stakeholders are made aware of how the software product is doing because of performance testing. It makes sure that the software meets specified standards and requirements before it goes public.
Performance testing will determine whether the software meets speed, scalability, and stability requirements under expected workloads. Applications sent to the market with weak performance metrics due to non-existent or inadequate performance testing will result in unfavorable reputation. And will lead to failure to meet expected sales goals.
Tools Used in Performance Testing
- Jmeter – http://jmeter.apache.org/
- Open STA – http://opensta.org/
- Load Runner – http://www.hp.com/
- Web Load – http://www.radview.com/
Techniques Used in Performance Testing
Load Testing
Load testing will result in measuring important business-critical transactions and weight on the database. It allows developers to determine the number of users an application or system can handle. Hence, before that particular app or system goes live. In addition to this, a developer can load test specific functionalities of an application. For instance, a checkout cart on a webpage.
Stress Testing
This testing type is done to detect the upper limit capacity of the software. Likewise for determining the performance of the system if the current load exceeds the expected maximum capacity.
Soak Testing
Otherwise known as endurance testing, soak testing determines the system metrics under the continuous expected load. Hence, it focuses on the performance of the system under sustained usage.
Spike Testing
Spike testing is performed by increasing the number of users suddenly by a considerable amount and also measuring the performance of the system. Furthermore, the main aim is to determine whether the order will be able to sustain the workload.
Characteristics of Performance Testing
- Speed
- Scalability
- Stability
- Reliability
Performance Testing Metrics
Performance metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) help an organization in evaluating performance, as compared to the baselines. These metrics and likewise, others help an organization perform multiple types of performance tests.
These Performance metrics are:
- Throughput: determines the number of units of information processed by a system over a specific time;
- Memory: this refers to working storage space available a processor or workload has;
- Response time, or otherwise known as latency. It is the amount of time used by user-entered requests.
- Bandwidth: Refers to the amount of data moving between workloads, or likewise, across networks, per second.
- CPU interrupts per second: the number of hardware interrupts a process receives per second.
In Conclusion
Performance tests makes sure that software performs as it should, and also, as expected. Early detection of performance issues enables the developers to resolve them. Therefore, end-users are assured that the software is of high quality.