Software Performance Testing: How Software Performs With Real TasksAny time new software is developed, it needs to be tested for bugs, functionality, performance, etc. Each of the tests serves a certain purpose for the software with the common goal of getting it ready for release. A test that is very important for any software is performance testing. Performance testing may actually be the largest area of testing. A few different types of performance testing may be performed. There is load testing, which determines how the system handles loading up with heavier and heavier traffic on the site. The test is to determine at what point, it no longer loads as it should. Classic performance testing is a type of testing that determines what the response times are, meaning how long it takes the system to respond to commands from the user. It also determines how many transactions can be performed on the site at one time. Another type of performance testing is called stress testing, which will determine and find any errors that are causes by low resources or other programs giving competition for the available resources. If you've ever had a few programs open at the same time and they suddenly move very slow, you know what I am referring to here. Volume testing is also a type of performance testing that will see how much volume the software can hold until it fails. The tester will continue to add more data to it to determine at what point it can no longer function. According to research done by some software testers, some of the more common reasons for failing performance tests are issues with the hardware, problems with the database, the size and volume of the transactions (more than the system can handle) and inadequate bandwidth. Performance testing can also be used as a means of validation and verification of other qualities of the system such as how reliable and scalable it is. It is also an important part of the computer science whose goal is to put performance into the design of the system even before the coding is entered. Performance testing has many additional, if less obvious roles. Besides indicating if the system meets the performance requirements, it can also make comparisons with two systems to see which one operates better. It can also determine not only how poorly the system is operating, but what parts are making it behave this way. It is very important that performance testing be done as early into the development as possible. The longer the delay in doing the performance testing, the more it will cost to remedy the problem. This is also the case with functional testing. The ideal situation for test cases is that they be as similar to the actual expected use as possible, although this is seldom possible. |