The What Why and How of the Performance Testing
Tags: testing, tutorial, beginners
Published: 2020-09-03 13:47:32

Performance testing is one of the most important phases of any product launch as it verifies and validates the overall product performance. This testing can be done in different forms depending upon the resource availability and the type and volume of user base. The main agenda behind conducting performance testing to any product is to make sure the performance of the product is as expected before it gets launched in the market. Through Performance Testing Tutorial, let us learn about Performance Testing in depth.

What is Performance Testing?

The process of validation of a project or system across parameters like scalability, reliability, speed, resource usage, stability, etc is called Perf or Performance Testing. This testing is done to ensure that the software or the system is durable enough to perform as per set expectations under a heavy workload and generate the desired output. It is a qualitative testing technique that verifies the product under test across these parameters.

Why should we do Performance Testing?

Like any other testing, that uncovers the loopholes and problem points in a given product, performance testing also brings up the weak point in the product under test. It indicates the scope of improvement in any product that is being tested over issues like a delayed response, large turnaround time, problems in running multiple commands simultaneously, and other inconsistencies across the software or the product. A bad test result indicates the overall poor usability of the product and calls for some improvements in it.

Software testing is done before the product is given a green signal to be launched into the market. The customers rely highly on the feedback and reviews of a given product where responsiveness is the most sought-after trait. A good performance test highlights the bottlenecks in the software before it gets to the end user.

Advantages of Performance Testing

There are several benefits to conducting performance testing across the target software before launching it directly in the market. Some of these are:

Validation across the fundamental features: 
The software is measured across the fundamental features that make it acceptable in the market. The reliability and robustness of the product are tested and in case any issues arise, improvisations in the existing product are made. 

Mapping the accuracy, speed, scalability, and stability of the product: 
Along with various other features, speed, accuracy, stability, and scalability are the most crucial ones. A software needs to be tested across these parameters to be reliable enough to be launched in the market. It is also indicative of the fact that how much is the product flexible in terms of any updation to be made as per user’s requirements.

Identification of bottlenecks and other discrepancies: 
Before the product is actually launched into the market, the developers get the final chance to make any rectification or changes in the product. Performance testing highlights any discrepancies in the product and allows developers to rectify it.

Capacity management: 
This aspect revolves around reflecting the true capacity of the product under testing in terms of workload.

Optimized working and improved performance: 
The optimization factor is reflective of how well and efficiently the product can handle any increase in the workload and volume. This gives the developers a hint of the extent to which the product is scalable and durable.

The satisfaction of the end users: 
Finally, your end users are happily satisfied if your end product works fine as per or beyond expectations if you had a trial run in the performance testing phase. A good response and throughput will gain you customer loyalty which is beneficial for your business.

What is the Process of Performance Testing?

The process of performance testing is as follows

#Step 1: Identification of the testing environment
Under this step, the physical environment under which testing will be conducted is set up. These include network configurations, software, and hardware requirements. You can conduct performance testing across different types of environments depending upon the availability and requirement. These may include:

A setup similar to the production system with a lesser number of servers with fewer specifications
A setup similar to the production system with a similar number of servers with similar specifications
A setup that completely imitates the production system
The actual production system

#Step 2: Identification of performance metrics
Parameters or metrics across which the product will be tested are determined. These include parameters like speed, accuracy, durability, etc.

#Step 3: Planning and designing of the performance test
Preliminary model(s) are created on the basis of decided parameters. These are like small test cases that are built around metrics including target and variability metrics.

#Step 4: Configuration of the test environment
Under this step, you need to set up the metrics and other elements of the test cases and environment in order to conduct the testing.

#Step 5: Implementation of the test design
Once the test cases are developed and configured, you can now implement these tests on the target product.

#Step 6: Execution
The penultimate step is to run the developed tests that have been implemented on the target product. This step includes monitoring of the process and capturing all the data that is the outcome of the test.

#Step 7: Analysis
The final and most important step is to analyze the outcome and results of the run performance test and see what areas need some correction. This is where the actual viable results will come from to make any improvement in the target product.

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