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The Real Value of Performance Testing Before Going Live

The Real Value of Performance Testing Before Going Live

Quality assurance (QA) services are necessary to ensure that any product or service you are putting out there is at its best possible state before you release it. In terms of software delivery, you need to make sure you have proper QA performance testing before you go live.

A lot of people tend to take a lot of shortcuts during this phase because of the notion that there can always be updates and fixes down the line. That said, there are real benefits to conducting thorough performance testing before you go live. Let’s discuss some of its advantages.

Your First Impression On Users Has a Better Chance

People will remember your launch state whether you like it or not. Clients will base their impression on the quality of your app or service upon going live, and their opinion will affect the perception of other potential consumers.

Proper QA performance testing before you go live means that your users will be more likely to have the best first impression. You want to get the best possible version of your product or service so that any feedback from the launch will just work on other tweaks and improvements.

A bad launch can stick with your name even when you make significant improvements over time.

You Can Get Better Performance Before Launch

QA services and performance testing can determine how well your product or service will fare in the real world. Once you’re out, it’s up to the users to determine how well your app or service runs.

Performance testing highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of your software, so you get the chance to make necessary adjustments, additions, and subtractions to streamline performance.

You Can Optimize Capacity

You can determine how many concurrent users your app or service can handle. It’s good to establish limitations and scalability right away, so you can make necessary adjustments for its live state.

You want to find the optimal amount of concurrent users and server usage so you can accommodate them without compromising the security or functionality of your product or service. It’s also good to know that this information is crucial to determine how well your app or service will fare when used or accessed by many people. 

You Can Prepare For Expected Challenges

Testing how your product or service will fare with different devices, screen sizes, and environments lets you prepare for some of the challenges that may arise once you’re in the real world.

Even though you may not have all the time and resources to make your launch bug-proof, this can still help you have a head start on solutions toward expected hiccups.

You Can Eliminate Problems and Start Working on Scalability

Performance testing also lets you know how well your app or service can handle and accommodate different types of traffic and brings bugs and other problems to the surface.

This is a big help so that you don’t waste extra resources when you go live trying to eliminate problems that could be avoided already.

Conclusion

The performance testing process is essential for maximizing your results when you go live. The best QA companies will be able to provide the right services so you can have a thorough preparation.

Codoid is one of the top QA companies in the industry because of our passion to help guide and lead the Quality Assurance community. Reach out to us for robust testing solutions.

How to Perform Shift-left Performance testing? A Guide with Advantages

How to Perform Shift-left Performance testing? A Guide with Advantages

The level of cost and effort it takes to fix a software bug depends on when the bug is first detected. So it goes without saying that finding bugs at the earliest stages can be instrumental in not only improving the product’s quality but also good for business before and after deployment. If you’re aware of the term, ‘Shift-Left’ Testing, you will know that it can be used to detect bugs at the early stages of development. But you might be confused with the concept of shift-left performance testing as performance testing is very different from the usual shift-left tests such as unit & functional tests.

Performance tests are usually performed at the tail end of the development cycle as it requires a lot of pricey hardware in dedicated testing environments. So in this blog, we will be exploring why is shift-left performance testing important, how to do it, and take a look at its undeniable advantages as well.

Why is Shift-Left Performance Testing important?

We no longer live in a world where users stick to a product just because it is functional. It is extremely hard for products to even reach the right people at this level of competition. So imagine doing all the hard work and reaching your intended end-user only for the person to be unhappy with your product’s performance. According to a report, 47% of users expect a website to load within a mere 2 seconds. The same could apply for all other products and you could lose hours in just a matter of seconds.

That is why as a leading software testing company, we always recommend viewing performance testing to be as important as unit or functional testing. The real severity of any issue is known only when it is time to fix it.

Graph depicting how Shift Left Performance Testing can reduce costs

Solutions to performance issues also won’t come easy as they will require architectural reformation. So naturally, shift-left performance testing is the way to go to detect such issues early and fix them with ease.

The key benefits of shift-left performance testing are:

  • The test cycles become more agile & shorter and in turn boost the project velocity.
  • Early detection saves a lot of time to ensure faster deployment and delivery to the market.
  • Reduce the cost to fix performance issues by identifying the defects early (i.e) when they are cheaper to fix.
  • Helps in developing a bankable product that doesn’t face any unexpected performance issues and makes the releases smoother.
  • Planning to do performing testing at the very end in higher environments is not easy as other activities such as functional testing, security testing, batch runs, exploratory testing, and infrastructural changes will be happening. So you’d either have to wait until they are over as performance testing can be impacted by such activities.

How to Perform Shift-left Performance testing?

Shift-left performance testing does come along with a lot of challenges, but we always feel that the benefits it has to offer make it an unavoidable practice. Being a leading performance testing service provider, we are now going to explore the various focus points that can help you implement shift-left performance testing at the earliest possible phases of development.

Testing at the Code Level

Adopting Test-Driven Development (TDD) and executing Performance Testing at the code level is one of the foundational steps. The challenge here would be defining the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at this level. Conventionally, we would be familiar with defining them at an application level. But going the extra mile here will have long-running benefits as defining KPIs for modules and sub-modules will ensure performance at the unit level at first and finally at the application level as well.

Continuous Performance Testing

Integrate performance testing with your CI/CD pipeline by doing performance testing and response time testing for every new feature that is developed during the sprints. So once the newly developed features get integrated with the overall system, performance testing should be conducted to ensure that the newly developed features do not introduce any performance bottlenecks in the overall system behavior.

Service Virtualization

We have already mentioned that not all the components will be ready when it comes to performing shift-left performance testing. So you might wonder how we will be able to do it without the product having the required infrastructure. Even if you develop components in parallel, having all of them ready will be extremely difficult. You could overcome this issue by using a service virtualization tool to define a baseline of those dependent components and model them as well.

Scaling the Load

So when performing such shift-left performance testing, it is important to keep in mind that the load has to be scaled based on the environment that the product will be tested in. Conventional wisdom would mislead us and make us scale the load using a linear approach. But in reality, scaling depends on multiple parameters and should be handled with care.

Automating the Performance Tests

Think beyond just UI testing during the early phases of development and focus on automated database and API tests. The primary reason behind utilizing API & database testing is that it can be used to accurately narrow down the performance issues hotspot in various products. In addition to that, both those tests possess great scalability qualities that can make it easier to scale the tests as the product starts to go through the next stages of development. We had also mentioned that performance regression testing has to be carried out whenever new features are added to the product. So automation of these regression tests will also be a crucial factor as it would take a lot of time if done manually.

We make sure to build robust and scalable automated test suites that can adapt to the change in requirements that can happen at any given moment. So in addition to achieving the primary objective of shift-left performance testing, it will also serve as an end-to-end solution for the product.

Enhanced Dev & Tester Collaboration

Shit-left testing in general isn’t just about moving the testing steps ahead in the pipeline, it is also crucial to have effective communication and collaboration between the developers and testers at the earliest stages of the development process. You can achieve this by using a centralized dashboard that both can access easily.

Using the right tools

There are various tools available in the market that can match our needs. But picking the right one is always a challenge that you wouldn’t want to fail. Here are a few factors you should look into when choosing a tool for shift-left performance testing.

  • The provision to stay in the IDE.
  • The ability of the tool to perform the tests using local resources, and scale to the cloud when needed.
  • Its integration capabilities to the CI/CD process.
  • The collaboration features it has.
  • The cost of the tool.

Conclusion

At this point, it is pretty obvious that shift-left performance testing is the only way to ensure that your product doesn’t have any very hard-to-resolve performance bottlenecks. So it definitely has to be a criterion to the ‘Definition of Done’. As explained in the blog, it does come with quite a few challenges that might be hard to overcome. But with an experienced QA company such as us on your side, you will be able to create a winning product.

The Essential Benefits of Load Testing in Software

The Essential Benefits of Load Testing in Software

Load testing is a form of software testing that enables teams to test software performance under varying user loads. Load testing aims to emulate real-world scenarios by putting a strain on the application and examining how it responds.

Many teams perform load testing near the end of the project after developers have finished their work. However, this is not the only time to check for performance issues. You can run various forms of load tests throughout the development process to ensure your product will perform well in the real world.

Here are the benefits of load testing in software:

1. Speed Up Software Deployment

Load tests offer valuable information on how your app will perform in the real world. The earlier you test, the easier it is to adjust to the application. Once you have made adjustments, it will be easier to predict when your application is ready to go live.

Software is only as valuable as the speed at which it can be deployed. With load testing, you can deploy your product faster and more confidently.

2. Get Better Insight into Software Performance

Load testing helps you understand how various elements of your app work together. This enables you to determine how well your software and the supporting infrastructure support the demands of the end-user.

For example, your software may crash under load if you have an extensive database and high-volume transactions. With load testing, you can isolate the errors and fix them.

3. Avoid Costly Software Errors

When developers perform load testing, it is easier to anticipate and prevent software errors. This makes it easier to avoid expensive software errors that can cost you and your company valuable resources.

4. Minimize Software Bugs

Software bugs can cause various issues, from frustrating user experiences to data corruption. Load tests help you identify the bugs and fix them before they become a problem.

5. Identify Useful Software Features

A load test can show you how your application works under various parameters. This can give you insight into how users will respond to your app. That insight can help you identify valuable features.

6. Create a Better User Experience

Load tests help you identify and fix issues with your software that could impact the user experience. If you are trying to increase conversions and every shopper has to wait, your conversion rates will suffer. You can fix the problem before you launch.

7. Explore Real-World Scenarios

Load tests help you prepare for real-world scenarios. You can simulate a busy online store, a website experiencing a spike in traffic, or a chat application processing heavy traffic.

Load testing allows you to find and fix potential problems before they happen. It also allows you to identify valuable features and create an enjoyable user experience.

Conclusion

Load testing is critical for any software project. Load testing can identify software problems, help improve the performance of your software and create a better user experience. Load testing is often done near the end of the project after core development work is complete. However, this is not the only time to perform load tests. It is much easier to adjust to the software earlier in the development process.

Codoid is an industry leader in QA with a passion for guiding and leading the Quality Assurance community. Our brilliant team of engineers loves to attend and speak at software testing meetup groups, forums, software quality assurance events, and automation testing conferences. If you need load testing services in the United States, get in touch with us! Let us know how we can help.

An Introductory Gatling Recorder Tutorial

An Introductory Gatling Recorder Tutorial

If your development is focused on providing HTTP support, Gatling is one of the best performance testing tools that we can use in load generation. Gatling is a Scala, Akka, and Netty-based open-source load and performance testing framework. Despite the fact that it is written in a domain-specific language, the tool provides us with a graphical user interface that allows us to record the scenario. When we finish recording the scenario, the GUI generates the Scala script that represents the simulation. Excited to learn how to master such a tool with so many features like the Gatling Recorder and a guide to creating a new Maven project? You’re at the right place, as we are one of the leading QA Companies with a lot of experience in using Gatling to its full potential.

Features of Gatling:

Let’s kickstart this blog by exploring the prominent features of Gatling.

Excellent HTTP Protocol – It makes Gatling a great choice for load testing web applications or directly calling APIs.

Scala simulation scripts – Since all the Gatling scripts are written in the Scala language, writing load testing scenarios in Scala provides great flexibility.

The Gatling Recorder – The Gatling recorder helps convert the flow of an application into a Gatling scenario. It is very much useful if you come across a complex web application.

The Code can be kept in the Version Control System – As the Gatling load test scenarios are written in the Scala language, they can be easily stored in the Version Control System. So the process of scenario code maintenance gets simplified.

Why Gatling?

Now that we have seen the main features of Gatling, let’s explore the other real-world benefits Gatling offers. Since it is an excellent tool for load/stress testing your system without regarding other performance requirements, several thousand concurrent users can be created from a single JVM. So, Gatling is an excellent tool for you to include in your continuous integration as it doesn’t require you to set up a distributed network of machines to perform testing. Apart from that, it is also useful if you want to write your own code rather than just recording the scripts. Now let’s see how to install Gatling.

Installing Gatling from Website

First and foremost, you have to download the Gatling performance testing tool from their official website. You will find two download options available there, one is the open-source version and the other is the Enterprise edition. We will be using the open-source version for this blog, and so you can go ahead and download that. The Enterprise edition does have a few additional features that you can explore once you are well-worse with the free version. Once your download has been completed, open the folder and unzip it.

Get Started with Gatling Recorder

Gatling has its own set of installation requirements for Windows and macOS. So you must have a JDK installed to execute the basic version. In addition to that, the utility requires JDK8.

Before we start, make sure to go through the Gatling manual to verify if you have got all the necessary prerequisites ready. Start by going to the bin folder in the unzipped Gatling folder to get Gatling from here. You could also do it by using the command prompt.

Verifying Gatling Manual

Verifying Gatling Manual in Bin foler

You could use Gatling.sh if you’re a Mac user. But since we’re on Windows, we’ll be using Gatling.bat. The tool will start up and run once you double-click on Gatling.bat. We will also be able to run a few example scripts provided by Gatling in the user directories.

If you wish to use command prompt, go to the Gatling Directory and open command prompt. Once you’ve opened the Gatling Directory Command Prompt, you can get the Gatling.bat file by using the following commands as shown in the image below.

  • cd bin
  • dir
  • gatling.bat

Gatling Directory Command Prompt

Gatling Recorder

We have already established the fact that the Gatling recorder is one of the prominent features of Gatling. As one of the leading Test Automation Companies, we have found this feature to be very resourceful. So let’s learn how to set up and run your recorder as an HTTP proxy or a HAR converter.

The Gatling Recorder assists you in swiftly generating scenarios by acting as an HTTP proxy between the browser and the HTTP server or converting HAR (HTTP Archive) files. In either case, the recorder creates a rudimentary simulation that closely resembles your previously recorded navigation.

So, let’s take a look at how we can record using the HAR option.

Gatling Recorder Prerequisites

1) Gatling should be put in place.

2) The path to the Java Home should be set.

3) The Gatling Home path must be defined.

Gatling Recorder using the HAR File Converter

A HAR file (HTTP Archive) can be imported into the Recorder and converted into a Gatling simulation. The Chrome Developer Tools or Firebug or the NetExport Firebug add-on can be used to obtain the HAR files. Follow the below steps to convert the HAR files to Gatling simulations.

Step 1:

Right-click on the page and click on Inspect to open Developer Tools. Make sure the Preserve log option is checked under the ‘Network’ tab.

HAR File Converter - Step 1 - Gatling Recorder

Step 2:

Once you finish navigating the website, right-click on the requests you want to export and click on the ‘Export’ option as shown in the below image.

HAR File Converter - Step 2 - Gatling Recorder

Step 3:

Launch Gatling recorder

Use the below-mentioned command in command prompt to execute the file recorder file from the Gatling directory.

C:\Gatling\gatling-charts-highcharts-bundle-3.6.1\bin>recorder.bat

Launch Gatling Recorder

Once you’ve run the above command, the Gatling Recorder will start and you will be able to see the following page.

HAR File Converter - Step 3

Step 4:

Check the Recorder mode and make sure that the HAR Converter mode is selected. In this scenario, it is set as ‘HTTP proxy’ by default and so let’s change it to HAR Converter. We will also be seeing how to record using the ‘HTTP Proxy’ mode in the next stage of the blog.

HAR File Converter - Step 4

Step 5:

Import the saved HAR file into the recorder and click on the ‘Start’ button.

HAR File Converter - Step 5

Step 6:

Once it has been successfully imported, you would have to run the following script using the below command.

C:\Gatling\gatling-charts-highcharts-bundle-3.6.1\bin>gatling.bat

HAR File Converter - Step 6 - Code script

Gatling Recorder using HTTP Proxy

So as stated above, we will now be seeing the steps you’ll need to follow to use the recorder using HTTP Proxy.

Step 1:

Configure the Browser

In order to use Gatling to capture our scenario, we must first configure our browser’s proxy settings. The following instructions will help you to set up Chrome for Gatling recording.

  • Open the Chrome Browser.
  • In the top right corner, click on the three dots to get a drop-down menu.
  • Click on the ‘Settings’ option.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the settings page and click on the ‘Advanced’ drop down option.
  • Click on System from the list of options that appear.
  • Once you click on ‘Open your Computer Proxy Setting’, the proxy page will be shown.
  • Recorder using HTTP Proxy - COnfigure Browser

  • Uncheck the ‘Automatically detect settings’ option.
  • Check the ‘Use the proxy server for your LAN’ option.
  • The address should be “localhost” and the port should be “8000”.
  • Click on the ‘Save’ Button.
Step 2:

Recording the Scenario

  • First, you have to go to the bin folder of the Gatling bundle. (In our case: C:\Gatling\gatling-charts-highcharts-bundle-3.6.1\bin)
  • Double click the “recorder.bat” file or run it using command prompt. Follow the same procedure as you did when using the HAR converter.
  • The recorder window will be displayed.
  • Recorder using HTTP Proxy -Step 2

  • Enter the port number in the local host box as per your preference. (In our case, we have used 8000).
  • Enter the package name.
  • Enter the class name.
  • Select the following options: “Follow Redirects,” “Infer HTML resources,” “Remove Cache Headers,” and “Automatic Referrers.”
  • Choose the location of the output files. We have used C:\Gatling\gatling-charts-highcharts-bundle-3.6.1\user-files\simulations.
  • Note: It’s a good idea to set simulation folders as defaults so that you wouldn’t have to copy the recorder file during load testing.
  • Keep all the other options to be the same and don’t change any existing options as well.
  • Click on the ‘Start’ button.
  • Open Chrome browser and navigate the flow you wish to record.
  • Once you are done, click the “Stop & Save” button to close the Gatling recording window.
  • The recorded file will be saved and ready to run. The file will be stored in the directory that you specified in the previous step.
Step 3:

Executing load testing using Gatling

After the import is complete, you can run the script using the command given below.

C:\Gatling\gatling-charts-highcharts-bundle-3.6.1\bin>gatling.bat

Step 3 - Code Script - Gatling Recorder

Creation of First Maven Project Using Scala for Gatling

Before creating a maven Project using Scala, we will look at the prerequisites you will need for its creation.

1) JDK 1.8 or Higher version should be installed in your system

2) The following environment variables have to be set

a. Java_Home Environment Variable

b. Maven_Home Environment Variable

c. Gatling_Home Environment Variable

If you want to check if you have all the prerequisites, you can simply follow the following steps.

Step 1:

Right Click on ‘This PC’ > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables > System Variables

Now, you will find all the environment variables available in your system. If you have all the required prerequisites, you can start with the creation of your first Maven Project.

Creating Your First Project

The easiest way to create a new project is by using an “archetype”. An archetype is a general skeleton structure or template for a project.

To create the project we need to follow a few steps:

Step 1:

Run the archetype plugin using command prompt by using the following command.

mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=io.gatling.highcharts -DarchetypeArtifactId=gatling-highcharts-maven-archetype

Creating your First Project - Step 1 - Script Code

Once you press enter, you will see Maven downloading many Jar Files by resolving dependencies and downloading them as needed (Only once).

Downloading Jar Files by resolving dependencies

Step 2:

Once all the jar files have been downloaded, assign the groupId, artifactId, and the package name for your classes before confirming the archetype creation.

Creating your First Project - Step 2 - Gatling Recorder

Step 3:

Once you’ve provided all the required details, you will see a build success message and the location of the particular project that implies your project has been successfully created.

Creating your First Project - Step 3

Step 4:

Open the Generated Project using Intellij Idea and follow the below steps to open the project using Intellij.

File > Open > Select the directory for the generated project > Click on the pom.xml file

Once you click to open the pom.xml, you will notice that it takes a little time to load all the dependencies and the project structure. It will also contain the following launchers.

  • Gatling Engine
  • Gatling Recorder

The Gatling load test engine can be launched by right-clicking on the Engine class in your IDE. The target/Gatling directory will be used to store the simulation reports.

You can easily start the Recorder by right-clicking on the Recorder class in your IDE. The src/test/Scala directory will be used to construct the simulations. We have attached an image reference to show how it’ll look once everything has been loaded.

Creating your First Project - Step 4

Now, you are all set and ready to write your first Gatling script.

The pom file will contain the following things:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>io.gatling.highcharts</groupId>
  <artifactId>gatling-highcharts-maven-archetype</artifactId>
  <version>1</version>

  <properties>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>

    <gatling.version>3.6.1</gatling.version>
    <gatling-maven-plugin.version>3.1.2</gatling-maven-plugin.version>
  </properties>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.gatling.highcharts</groupId>
      <artifactId>gatling-charts-highcharts</artifactId>
      <version>${gatling.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.gatling</groupId>
      <artifactId>gatling-app</artifactId>
      <version>${gatling.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.gatling</groupId>
      <artifactId>gatling-recorder</artifactId>
      <version>${gatling.version}</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <testSourceDirectory>src/test/scala</testSourceDirectory>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>io.gatling</groupId>
        <artifactId>gatling-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${gatling-maven-plugin.version}</version>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Writing First Gatling Script:

To start writing your first Gatling Script first of all we need to create a package with the name simulation under SRC > test > scala as shown below.

Writing First script in Gatling Recorder

Once you have created the simulations folder, we need to create a class under that particular folder and name it as you wish.

Creating a class under Gatling

Now, you can start writing your script in that particular class. If you’re not aware of the general procedures to follow while writing your script, don’t be worried as we’ve got you covered.

The protocols to be followed for writing the scripts:
  • The Package Name should be Mentioned
  • Make sure to import all the important Gatling Classes
  • The Class should extend the Simulation Class
  • The script should consist of the below three integral parts
  • HTTP Configuration
  • Scenario
  • Setup
  • In the HTTP configuration part, we should provide the base URL to pass the header and the value.
  • Here, we give the scenario a name and execute the request by providing the request URL and an assertion for the particular request.
  • When it comes to the setup part, we must inject the number of concurrent users utilizing the setup method and pass the protocols.

The Script should be as follows:

package simulations;

import io.gatling.core.scenario.Simulation
import io.gatling.core.Predef._
import io.gatling.http.Predef._

class TestApiSimulation extends Simulation {

  //http conf
  val httpConf = http.baseUrl("https://reqres.in/")
    .header("Accept", value = "application/json")
    .header("content type", value = "application/json")

  //scenario
  val scn = scenario("get user")
    .exec(http("get user request")
      .get("https://reqres.in/api/users/2")
      .check(status is 200))

  //setup
  setUp(scn.inject(atOnceUsers(1))).protocols(httpConf)
}

Once the script is ready, you can run it by

  • Clicking right on the ‘Engine’ option
  • Click Run Engine

Clicking right on the ‘Engine’ option

After you click on run Engine, you will see the script run and you will be asked to enter the description of the run in the console. Once you have entered the description, you will get the output in the console along with the report link. If you want to view the report, all you have to do is just copy the report link and paste it into any browser.

Console Output

Global Information Results

Global Information Report - Gatling Recorder

Statics Report

Statics Report

Detail Report

Detail Report

Conclusion:

We hope you enjoyed reading our blog while learning how to install & use Gatling to load test an HTTP server and also how to create your own maven project. Using a graphical user interface, we can record a simulation based on a defined scenario, and once the recording is complete, we’ll be good to start our test.

Common Load Test Types

Common Load Test Types

Load Testing is one of the types of performance testing. The typical load testing process is Test Design, Test Execution, Analysis the report, Fix the performance bottlenecks, and Re-run the scripts. To identify responsiveness and stability issues, you need to use different kinds of loads.

In every load testing, two parameters are involved – no. of virtual users and Test Duration. So the goal is you need to load the targeted no. of users within the stipulated time.

In this blog article, you will learn how to ramp-up users using different load test strategies.

Basic Load

In this type, you ramp-up all the users quickly and see how the application behaves with concurrent user load.

For example: Let’s say you have planned for 2000 users and two hours test duration. All the 2000 users will be ramped-up in 120 seconds, and the test will run for 2 hours with a 2000 concurrent user load.

Load Test Types

Ramp-up and Ramp-down Load

In this load, you ramp-up and ramp-down gradually. Instead of loading all the users quickly, you will load slowly and see how resources are utilized.

Load Testing Types

Multi-Step Load

The multi-step load is well suitable if the end-users are using/visiting the web application from different time-zones. A sudden increase in the load may not help you to identify the performance bottlenecks. Multi-step load adds a set of users in the given interval instead of loading all the users in one go.

Performance Testing Company

Random Load

Sometimes It is impossible to predict the user load. We will recommend adding a random load test. You can analyze how the application is reacting to the fluctuating load.

Types of load testing

Exponential Load

In this test, you load a small set of users for a while and suddenly increase the load exponentially to test how the system scales when the load is super fast.

jmeter load testing

In Conclusion

Choosing the right load strategy will help you to identify the performance issues before releasing the system/app to the end-users. As one of the best QA companies, we create a concrete performance testing plan after gathering requirements from our clients.

Testing the responsiveness and stability of your application is vital to avoid unexpected issues. If your application is not responding, the user may never visit again. Performance testing is expensive. You need an expert team to accomplish the goals accurately. Contact us for your Load Testing needs.

Performance Testing and its Strategy

Performance Testing and its Strategy

This blog is mainly going to cover performance testing and its strategy. Performance Testing helps the business to understand the stability and reliability of the application upon stringent circumstances.

What is performance Testing?

To define in laymen terms, a Performance test is conducted to mainly observe the behavior of application which is hosted on a server upon various loads. The goal is not to validate the functional flow and identify the bugs in that manner, rather test a maturity attained application under critical load, volume, stress conditions to verify the set benchmark parameters are satisfied before the application goes live.

Types of Performance Testing

In levels of testing, the performance test is classified under the non-functional testing , given the nature of the test. This is again categorized into various types of testing which are listed below

Load testing

This test determines the application behavior under a certain load. When we say load we can consider a couple of illustrations as the number of user hits per second or the number of transactions. The goal is to verify how the application performance when there is a load on the server.

Stress Testing

Unlike the above test, this is done by injecting the load higher than the threshold to see the behavior of the application; this can tell us the breakeven point of an application also the frequency of getting down.

Volume Testing

This test is also called as flood testing as we are going to inject too much of data into the application to see, how the queue or any other interface is withstanding the inflow

Endurance Testing

This testing is done by subjecting the application to a nominal load but to make it operate for quite longer than its usage in the field. This test gives the reliability of the application as we are considering the time that the application lasts before it sees failure.

Spike testing

This test is performed by applying a significant steep of raise load on the application to see the withstanding nature of an application.

Scalability testing

This testing is done to verify how the application behaving when the load is kept increasing by adding a lot of user data volume.

Why is performance testing needed?

Given the capabilities of functional testing, a performance test is more useful to understand the reliability parameters. The intention of the test is not just to find the defects but more about examining the application behavior under load. Spec is defined in such a way that it mainly denotes following

How many concurrent users can log in to the application?

How many transactions should the application be processing upon peak load?

How much minimum the response time must be of?

There are a few other parameters which are gathered as part of Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) gathering and tested accordingly.

Has there been no performance testing we wouldn’t be able to understand the capacity, flexibility and the critical parameters of an application under load and there are great chances that we fail in field due to the improper understanding of the benchmark parameters.

Parameters that are validated during test

When any test is conducted, we look for certain parameters as validation elements. In performance testing, these parameters are again considered as two parameters

Server-side parameters:-

CPU utilization

Memory utilization

Disc utilization

Garbage collector

Heap dump/ thread pooling

Client-side parameters:-

Load

Hits per second

Transactions per second

Response times

Entry & Exit criteria

Like every other type of test, performance test also defines its own entry and exit criteria.

Entry criteria

This imperatively defines, when the application is eligible to undergo a performance test. Following are the key pre-requisites to define entry criteria

Functional testing must have been thoroughly conducted

Application must be stable

No major showstoppers must have been in open state

When a dedicated NFT environment is made available

Needed test data should be ready

Exit criteria

This defines how and when to tear down the test, the following activities must be completed to give a proper sign-off from a performance test perspective

An application must have been tested with all the NFR requirements

No major defects or customer use cases are to be in failing state

All the test results should be properly analyzed

Reports and results must be published to all stakeholders for sign-off

After discussing about various parameters and basics about Performance Testing, we will now discuss in detail about Performance Testing Strategy

Performance Testing Strategy

Below are the key pointers to consider in defining the Performance Testing strategy

Understanding Organization Requirement

Assess the Application nature and category

Take stock of last year’s performance of existing live applications

Defining Scope

Tool identification

Environment readiness

Risk assessment

Results analysis and report preparation

Understanding Organization Requirement

Every Organization provides certain service to Customer and based on the services and the nature of assessing requirement to its Customer, Performance Testing requirement gain importance. For example, an e-commerce company is relying 100% on Customer hit rates and successful transactions. 1000+ customers login at a time to buy products. During Offer sale, this can turn to the peak of million customers login at a time. This type of Organization needs strong performance testing before hosting it live. Their spending on Performance tool is inevitable.

Assess the Application nature and category

Identify the # of Applications that are in life on that year and assess the application based on its nature, whether it is Customer facing or assessed by the back end-user or assessed by operations team.

This brings in the criticality of application for performance testing. Also, understand the technology in which it is built with and the number of releases planned with a criticality of release. Prepare the list based on the above pointers.

Take stock of last year’s performance of existing live applications

Few applications would be in live for the past few years. Understand the challenges with respect to performance it faced and do the impact assessment based on past history. This exercise would give us the concrete requirement for Performance Testing for that application.

Defining Scope

After assessing the application nature and taking stock of past history, it gives us a requirement on what to test. Prepare NFR Requirements. This is nothing but the process of coming up with a well-documented test plan for that application. This phase essentially includes the identification of the non-functional requirements such as stated below

Whether the application is a multiuser purpose one or a limited user purpose one.,

Identification of key business transactions that are needed to test

Identify key blockers in the past from performance perspective and target to include in the testing scope

Forecasting the future load on certain services and conducting testing as needed

Tool identification

This is essential in the business; the right choice of tool will help in managing the cost as well as the hassle-free test conduction. The proper analysis must be done before we go for a selection that best suits the assignment.

Whether or not it’s an open-source tool or licensed

The tool that is selected should support any test activity with minimal configuration

The tool should help us in generating the best reporting mechanism

The tool must have got a decent community to get any solution for the problem being faced

To insist on the first point, the tool need not be freeware all the time, it’s completely a business call considering the high-end features that a licensed tool offers, no possibility for any breaches. If at all the test engineer identifies that the same can be accomplished by going with any other alternative tool that is available for free and supports the operation equally with a licensed one, then the choice of open-source one is desired as that way we can save the cost that is incurred. Below are some tools list

Popular Performance Testing tools are:

Jmeter (open source)

Load runner (commercial)

Silk performer (commercial)

Neo load (Commercial)

Application performance management tools:

App Dynamics

Wily-introscope

Perf mon

N-mon

Environment Readiness

This is one of the major considerations as far as the performance test is concerned. Unless and otherwise there is an isolated environment for NFT testing we can deem the test results and the application critical parameters (response time, think time, throughput..etc). So, a dedicated environment is highly recommended as the tasks more or related to

Insert a huge number of transactions in DB through API hit

Perform concurrent login scenario

Observe the response time while navigating between the pages

The environment must be maintained properly and should be highly stable

Risk assessment

It is quite obvious that on certain tasks, there are one or multiple hurdles seen down the line. We should foresee them during the initial discussions about the planning and proactively calling them out to all stakeholders will help come up with a stringent plan, that way we can reduce the negative impact on the business.

This concept is to learn the impact on a business if at all

Analyzing the dependency with the development and environmental team to get the support required during application being broke/ downtime instances

Going live with the presence of a defect that may occur at customer sight

Can’t test a particular scenario due to the unavailability of the infrastructure in the lower environments

Testing a feature by taking some deviation

Results analysis and report preparation

For any execution we make, test results are the key as they are the outcome of the effort that is being spent.

Post execution, results generated from the performance testing tool have to be analyzed and various parameters are assessed and a decent report in an easily understandable way has to be shared to all stakeholders on the outcome. We have tools which capture results of a test run, we can fairly extract from them.

Few instances, performance engineering activity also done by going one step further deep to understand where the blockers are and what could be the solution. This activity requires architectural understanding and finding the error-prone areas.