Types of Performance Testing

Performance testing: What is it?

Software's ability to operate at a high level under the anticipated demand is tested during performance testing. Software that is responsive and quick when only one person is connected but becomes slow when dealing with several users is something that developers wish to avoid.

QA testing isn't just focused on finding bugs. Speed, responsiveness, and resource utilisation are crucial considerations for software. Performance bottlenecks are a focus of performance testing.

By simulating user traffic, bottlenecks are located. Performance tests should ideally be conducted in real-world settings by QA testers. This is one of the software's first forays into the uncharted territory of end-user experience, away from the security of ideal conditions.

Types of Performance Testing for Software

First and foremost, it's crucial to comprehend how software functions on users' computers. There are various performance test types that can be used while testing software. This non-functional testing is carried out to assess a system's readiness. Functional testing is concerned with particular software functionalities.

Capacity testing

Capacity testing makes sure that the application and environment can efficiently manage the most users or transactions in accordance with the performance standards outlined in your Service-Level Agreement (SLA). The goal of capacity testing is to determine how much traffic your system can handle at its highest capacity while still providing the best possible user experience.

Load Testing

System performance is measured during load testing as the workload grows. Users or transactions could be included in the workload. The system is observed to gauge response time and system endurance as workload rises. The demands of the workload are consistent with standard working circumstances.

Scalability Testing

Software's ability to handle increasing workloads is evaluated through scalability testing. By progressively increasing the user load or data volume while keeping an eye on system performance, this can be ascertained. Moreover, even though resources like CPUs and memory are altered, the workload could remain unchanged.

Spike Testing

Spike testing is a kind of stress test that measures how well software performs under conditions of rapidly and repeatedly increasing workloads. For brief periods of time, the workload is greater than usual expectations.

Soak Testing

Soak testing, commonly referred to as endurance testing, is an assessment of how software functions under typical workload conditions over a lengthy period of time. The purpose of soak testing is to look for system flaws like memory leaks. (A memory leak happens when a system forgets to free up memory that has been used up. The memory leak may result in system failure or performance issues.)

Stress Testing

Stress testing, commonly referred to as fatigue testing, is intended to measure system performance outside of the constraints of typical working settings, in contrast to load testing. More users or transactions are available for the software to handle. Stress testing's objective is to gauge the stability of the software. How can software recover from failure and at what point does it fail?

Volume Testing

Volume testing determines how well software performs with large amounts of projected data. Because the test floods the system with data, it is also known as flood testing.