Performance Testing :An Basic Introduction

Performance Testing :An Basic Introduction

What is Performance Testing?

The word PERFORMANCE is nothing is but SPEED. (For a given request how quickly the application/system is responding). Performance testing is the process to identify the system/application behavior under set of controlled conditions (Example: Number of users, Duration). Performance Testing focuses on the load, volume, scalability, stability and reliability of the underlying software and hardware architecture in real time environments. Performance Testing is aimed to verify the system performance requirements like Response Time, Transactional throughput, number of concurrent users and Resource usage. Performance Testing is used to accurately measure the end-to-end performance of a system prior to go live.

Why Performance Testing?

Issues in General:

• Poor Response Times: The page downloaded may take more than 2 or 3 minutes where as it should download within 10 seconds.
• Scalability Issues: If the increasing number of users applied on the systems, after it reaches its maximum handling capacity, system starts giving response times from 5 seconds to 100 seconds.
• Availability: If the servers are getting shutdown frequently, this impacts the availability of the systems/applications to the users.
• High Resource Usage: If the CPU/Memory/Disk utilization exceeds more than 80-90% which need to host more number of users than existing.
• To compare the current performance characteristics of the application with the performance characteristics that equate to end-user satisfaction when using the application.
• Prevents costly failures of mission critical applications.
• Assures performance and functionality under real-world conditions.
• Locates potential problems before our customers do.
• Reduces development time and infrastructure costs.

When to do Performance Testing?

• Capacity Assessment for a new application.
• When the application is functionally stable.
• Before application goes in to production.
• For Functional changes or enhancements.
• Performance Testing at each level early (Early Performance testing)
• Migration/Upgrading
• To identify application/system behavior and performance issues (Bottlenecks)

Objectives of Performance Testing:

• Application's response time for the intended number of users.
• Application's maximum load resisting capacity.
• Application's capacity of handling the number of users and transactions required by the Business.
• Application's stability and behavior under expected and unexpected user load.
• Hardware Capacity Planning
• Base-lining and Bench-marking
• To identify the memory leaks and Application bottlenecks in performance front.