Performance testing is one of the challenging and demanding process in software testing. Performance testing process involves various activities such as requirement gathering, test design, data and workload selection, execution, analysis and reporting. This blog will help you to understand how performance testing works and steps involved in it.
Performance testing is a process to evaluate software application for its performance, functional or non-functional requirements. It could be done in any point of software life cycle. In this article we will understand the performance testing process in detail with its different phases.
Performance Testing | Software Testing
- Last Updated : 30 Apr, 2019
Prerequisite – Types of Software Testing
Performance Testing is a type of software testing that ensures software applications to perform properly under their expected workload. It is a testing technique carried out to determine system performance in terms of sensitivity, reactivity and stability under a particular workload.
Performance Testing is the process of analyzing the quality and capability of a product. It is a testing method performed to determine the system performance in terms of speed, reliability and stability under varying workload. Performance testing is also known as Perf Testing.
Performance Testing Attributes:
- Speed:
It determines whether the software product responds rapidly. - Scalability:
It determines amount of load the software product can handle at a time. - Stability:
It determines whether the software product is stable in case of varying workloads. - Reliability:
It determines whether the software product is secure or not.
Objective of Performance Testing:
- The objective of performance testing is to eliminate performance congestion.
- It uncovers what is needed to be improved before the product is launched in market.
- The objective of performance testing is to make software rapid.
- The objective of performance testing is to make software stable and reliable.
Types of Performance Testing:
- Load testing:
It checks the product’s ability to perform under anticipated user loads. The objective is to identify performance congestion before the software product is launched in market. - Stress testing:
It involves testing a product under extreme workloads to see whether it handles high traffic or not. The objective is to identify the breaking point of a software product. - Endurance testing:
It is performed to ensure the software can handle the expected load over a long period of time. - Spike testing:
It tests the product’s reaction to sudden large spikes in the load generated by users. - Volume testing:
In volume testing large number of data is saved in a database and the overall software system’s behavior is observed. The objective is to check product’s performance under varying database volumes. - Scalability testing:
In scalability testing, software application’s effectiveness is determined in scaling up to support an increase in user load. It helps in planning capacity addition to your software system.
Performance Testing Process:
Performance Testing Tools:
Factors controlling the Performance Testing | Software Testing
- Last Updated : 19 Oct, 2021
Prerequisite : Performance Testing | Software Testing
Performance Testing is conducted to discover the response time, throughput, etc., and also to execute its required functions by doing a comparison with different versions of the same product or different competitive products. It is a type of software testing that ensures that software applications perform correctly under their expected workload. It is a testing technique carried out to determine system performance in terms of sensitivity, reactivity, and stability under a particular workload.
The factors controlling the performance testing are given below :
Factors controlling the Performance Testing | Software Testing
- Last Updated : 19 Oct, 2021
Prerequisite : Performance Testing | Software Testing
Performance Testing is conducted to discover the response time, throughput, etc., and also to execute its required functions by doing a comparison with different versions of the same product or different competitive products. It is a type of software testing that ensures that software applications perform correctly under their expected workload. It is a testing technique carried out to determine system performance in terms of sensitivity, reactivity, and stability under a particular workload.
The factors controlling the performance testing are given below :
- Throughput –
The throughput is a concept of determining how well a software or an application can perform. It is a capability of the system or the product handling multiple transactions that are determined by a factor. It also represents the number of requests or business transactions processed by the software or an application in the specified time frame. Note that the throughput, i.e., the number of transactions serviced by the product per unit time varies according to the load the product is put under.
- Response Time –
The response time is defined as the delay between the point of request and the first response from the software product. In a normal client-server environment, a throughput determines the number of transactions that can be handled by the server whereas a response time defines the delay between the request and response of an application.
- Latency –
The latency can bedefined as the delay caused by an application, OS, and by the environment that are calculated separately. Note that, not all the delay that happens between the request and the response is caused due to the product. In the networking scenario, the network or other products which are sharing the network resources can cause delays. Therefore, we must know that what delays the application causes and what delays the environment causes.
- Tuning –
Tuning is a process in which the product’s performance is improved by adding some different values to the parameters (variables) of the application, operating system, and other components. It enhances the product’s performance without modifying the source code of the product and here each product may have certain parameters that can be added at run time to get a great performance.
- Benchmarking –
Benchmarking can bedefined as the process of comparing the throughput and response time of the product to those of the competitive products. Here, no two products are the same in features, cost, and functionality. Therefore, it is not easy to decide that what two or more parameters must be compared between the two products.
- Capacity Planning –
Capacity planning is a process in which we determine what type of hardware and software resources are needed for running an application with a given user load. Here, the most significant factor that affects performance testing is the availability of resources. The right kind of hardware and software configuration is needed to derive the best results from performance testing and for deployments.
- Throughput –
The throughput is a concept of determining how well a software or an application can perform. It is a capability of the system or the product handling multiple transactions that are determined by a factor. It also represents the number of requests or business transactions processed by the software or an application in the specified time frame. Note that the throughput, i.e., the number of transactions serviced by the product per unit time varies according to the load the product is put under.
- Response Time –
The response time is defined as the delay between the point of request and the first response from the software product. In a normal client-server environment, a throughput determines the number of transactions that can be handled by the server whereas a response time defines the delay between the request and response of an application.
- Latency –
The latency can bedefined as the delay caused by an application, OS, and by the environment that are calculated separately. Note that, not all the delay that happens between the request and the response is caused due to the product. In the networking scenario, the network or other products which are sharing the network resources can cause delays. Therefore, we must know that what delays the application causes and what delays the environment causes.
- Tuning –
Tuning is a process in which the product’s performance is improved by adding some different values to the parameters (variables) of the application, operating system, and other components. It enhances the product’s performance without modifying the source code of the product and here each product may have certain parameters that can be added at run time to get a great performance.
- Benchmarking –
Benchmarking can bedefined as the process of comparing the throughput and response time of the product to those of the competitive products. Here, no two products are the same in features, cost, and functionality. Therefore, it is not easy to decide that what two or more parameters must be compared between the two products.
- Capacity Planning –
Capacity planning is a process in which we determine what type of hardware and software resources are needed for running an application with a given user load. Here, the most significant factor that affects performance testing is the availability of resources. The right kind of hardware and software configuration is needed to derive the best results from performance testing and for deployments.