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The Performance Testing Errors That Must Be Prevented

The Performance Testing Errors That Must Be Prevented

A large number of organizations fall prey to performance problems with their system, websites, apps, and other online sites. This happens since they fail to have these tested under real world conditions, and also because they remain unaware of the performance testing errors that need to be prevented. A proficient and expert software testing partner would be able to conduct performance tests without the errors, thereby ensuring top quality software. Here are some of the common performance testing errors:

Performance Testing Error

Ambiguity in Defining Goals

Load testing needs clear and quantifiable goals else the testing exercise is simply a guessing game. The goals should be based on the actual requirements of the business of the client. These could be performance under normal and heavy load conditions, response time per activity, or the volume of data the system is expected to manage, and other such goals.

Incomplete/Shoddy Planning

Performance considerations of software must be in the forefront even in the design stage – ignoring this is bound to cause problems later. In fact, organizations must ensure that performance testing assurance be part of the SLAs as part of the designing phase.

Delaying Performance Testing

Some organizations believe that conducting performance testing can wait to the end of the SLDC. This is false, and an expert performance testing company would advise the client on the benefits of running performance tests throughout the development lifecycle without delay. They would also be able to provide insights with regard to the kind of performance levels that the business can expect post conducting the entire set of tests.

Too Much Emphasis on Time

This error has to do with regard to using inadequate stop and think times – that is forgetting to add the reading and reaction time of users. A meticulous performance testing regime would emulate the actual interaction that users would have with the application. However, not simulating these actual scenarios would bring up unrealistic results, causing concern and panic. Avoiding this performance testing error would be critical to success.

Testing on Single Use Case

Inexperienced software testing teams would use a single test case setting when conducting performance testing. This would not only create problems but also skew results with regard to the kind of scenarios the application would encounter in real world situations. Expert performance testers would apply appropriate and easy to use tools that would enable a variety of statistical approaches that would bring up several kinds of variances. This in turn would offer a much more realistic indication of real world use cases.

Running Tests from a Single Location

Technical reasons or budget concerns sometimes makes software testing teams run performance testing services from within the firewall. This obviously will not be a true measure of the kind of performance the application would be able to provide in a real world scenario/or under load conditions.

Incomplete Analysis/Using Assumptions

The job of a tool while running a test is to collect data/KPIs (key performance indicators). It is necessary to allow the test run to be complete before trying to analyze the data. Using the data midway amounts to using assumptions since it would be impossible to identify trends. The errors presented at the end of the test cycle are what need to be analyzed thoroughly. While this is extremely critical, it is also one of the most challenging tasks faced by testers – using an experienced performance testing company will ensure process rigor.

Applying Small Amounts of Hardcoded Data

Some testers take the easy route by using a comparatively smaller set of hardcoded static data. This in no way can provide a realistic picture of the actual performance of a live application. An expert company undertaking performance testing services would generate inexpensive data to create huge amounts of realistic evidence. This would provide a better indication of the expected performance of the app/software product once it is in the market.

Lack of Test Run Documentation

Repeating tests and comparing results from each test is an essential part of load testing services. However, without adequate documentation for the multiple tests, the parameters applied, application versions, and the varying test settings – it would be a nightmare to track the changes and compare results. A proficient testing company would provide easy to use, efficient, and transparent documentation each time.

In Conclusion

There are already a number of things that could potentially lower the performance of your product, in addition to these errors. It would make business sense to partner with a top class performance testing company to ensure that these errors are avoided at the start. Efficient performance testing forms the basis of a high quality product – and most companies are unable to get it right despite their best intentions. Connect with our experts and leave all the worrying to us – top quality products guaranteed every time.

Continuous Performance Validation of Server Response Important during Load Testing

Continuous Performance Validation of Server Response Important during Load Testing

Load testing checks the ability of a software application to perform under anticipated user loads. The objective of load testing is to identify potential bottlenecks in an application before sending it ‘to market’. Further, load testing aims to check the availability of a system, its performance, capacity, and to validate its ability to deliver the service or functionality requested by the user/as intended. Any top performance testing company would ensure that testers also validate server response. This is performed by checking database execution time and verifying the response time of the application under low, normal, moderate, and heavy load conditions. The fact is experts know that load and functionality related problems usually happen, and hence every single step of performance validation is critical to success. Companies specializing in load and performance testing will validate server responses each time. This validation covers a vast gamut of activities, and some of these include validating – response code, basic structure of a page, main components, page completeness, important points of the activity currently being conducted, and a lot more.

Deliver Top Quality Products

A top performance testing company would ensure that accuracy of the server response each time. To achieve this, test engineers would ensure that load testing products provide efficient validation functionality. By devising test scenarios and validation parameters that guarantee the successful execution of services being tested, testers can ensure validation of the server response to some extent. Some test engineers may view this from a load testing perspective – for instance, identifying pages with responses that exceed certain specified duration. Engineers undertaking load testing services would need to investigate such discrepancies and provide immediate remediation.

Validation of Server Response

Checking the Response Codes

Load testing service engineers could discover that unexpected data is going out as a user request-response. Response codes are essential to detect such anomalies in the server response. For instance, a properly functioning web server is expected to generate a response code of 200. However, testers of a performance testing company may detect responses such as 401, 404, and 503. These responses indicate a clear problem while validating the server response during load testing exercises. Further, the total time required to load an entire webpage is indicative of server response performance in certain testing scenarios.

Hardware Problems

Computer hardware performance is critical to load testing exercises. An engineer providing performance testing services must assess the performance of testing hardware before evaluating test results. The hardware (such as a web server or a server farm) hosting an application must perform optimally at all times. An intelligent approach to this would be to perform distributed load testing from multiple geographical locations. Additionally, modern testing tools and frameworks can help detect hardware problems that could distort the server response in test environments.

Validation Rules

Test engineers performing load testing services can deploy validation rules to assess the accuracy of server responses. Validation rules represent comparison criteria that testers can add to scenarios and these rules work by comparing server response data against expected values. A tester can create a specific validation rule if a server ‘responds’ with incorrect data. Typically, validation rules can be built around simple data types such as strings, long strings, numbers, Boolean values, and complex data such as objects or arrays. Such techniques represent benchmarks in the realm of server response validation during load testing.

In Conclusion

Server response has a direct impact on the experience of a software application or product by the end user. Therefore, this parameter must be tested from multiple perspectives to guarantee client satisfaction and user delight. Functional problems usually emerge during load and performance testing – not typically during load execution but during dry-runs of low load. Additionally, inconsistent response times, spikes, and others are certain ‘typical flawed load behaviors’. The premise of validating server responses during load and performance testing is to find unusual and unexpected flaws. Experts testers would excel in such testing exercises – connecting with us puts you in the driver’s seat.

Distributed Load Testing in Locust

Distributed Load Testing in Locust

Today, you will learn how to perform distributed load testing in Locust. If you are not familiar with Locust, then let’s refresh the basics and see how to perform distributed execution. Locust is an open source load testing tool and you can describe all your test in Python code.

Distributed Load Testing in Locust

Installation Locust is a Python library. It does not have any UI to write or configure your test. You can describe all your test in Python code.

pip install locustio

Locust File CreationCreate a python file using the below code.

from locust import HttpLocust, TaskSet, task

class UserBehavior(TaskSet):
    @task
    def index(self):
        self.client.get("/")

class WebsiteUser(HttpLocust):
    task_set = UserBehavior
    min_wait = 5000
    max_wait = 9000

Note: If a file has HttpLocust class, then it will be considered as LocustFile. In the above code, we have two classes, one is TaskSet which is used to declare all your tests and the second one is HttpLocust which represents one user and it should have task_set attribute.

Executing Locust FileUse the below command to run your Locust file.

locust -f locust-examples/locustfile.py --host=http://google.com

Note: As per the above command, our LocustFile is placed inside a folder (i.e. locust-examples). Once you execute the above command, Locust web monitor will start and you can start load execution from web monitor

Locust Web MonitorYou can launch the web monitor using http://localhost:8089/.

Locust Web Monitor

Now, click Start Swarming button after entering number of users and Hatch rate.

Distributed Execution

To start locust in master mode:

locust -f my_locustfile.py --master

And then on each slave (replace 192.168.0.14 with IP of the master machine):

locust -f my_locustfile.py --slave --master-host=192.168.0.14
Load Testing Critical to Measure Scale and Performance

Load Testing Critical to Measure Scale and Performance

Businesses and enterprises rely heavily on digital applications for critical functions and hence it is important to validate whether applications can withstand realistic workload scenarios. Application load testing helps test engineers determine the behavior of a system under normal (and anticipated) peak load conditions. Such exercises help to identify the maximum operating capacity of an application and detect any bottlenecks. In essence, load testing ensures a given function, program, or system can handle the assignments it is designed to execute.

Load Testing Critical to Measure Scale and Performance

Beyond Functional Testing

The functional testing of an application, while important, in no way degrades the centrality of application load testing – a performance testing company undertakes such testing to measure the performance of an application over time. Commercially available load testing tools help ensure applications can withstand normal amounts of user traffic and can navigate spikes and unusual conditions. Further, application load testing helps validate the fundamental features of a software product – measure the speed, accuracy, and stability of the software, identify discrepancies, resolve issues, and improve optimization and load capability.

Components of Load Testing

Commercial providers of load testing services can gather requirements, map relevant user journeys, establish a baseline, and automate and integrate the various units of a software product as part of application load testing activities. Such actions help providers of load testing services to gain a deeper understanding of the end-user experience, identify how users interact with an application, use monitoring data from any APM tools, run tests to establish a solid baseline for further testing, and prioritize load testing as a part of CI/CD processes, while integrating with automation tools already in use.

Cloud: Insurance for Performance

When load testing services adopt a firm stance on performance using cloud-based testing services would make the task more efficient. This choice of action reduces the costs of failure in application load testing campaigns. It helps to minimize risk related to performance requirements, increase customer satisfaction, detect performance bottlenecks, and improve the scalability of an application. Further, it boosts the deployment quality of any tested application, optimizes costs related to hardware and software, reduces the risks and costs associated with downtime, and provides tangible statistics to developers. Additionally, commercial cloud-based load testing services help start-ups to build a better and more scalable application.

Measure and Repeat

Measuring the performance of an application is an important aspect of performance testing. Measurements allow testing engineers to derive an understanding of choke points and bottlenecks within a software application. The use of application and server performance monitoring services empowers measurement activities and enables load testing campaigns to attain fruition. Additionally, measuring the internal working of an application and comparing these with load testing results helps implement tweaks to a modern software application. Finally, software testers need to repeat testing processes and refine them for better outcomes. It is important to continue writing tests, undertake functional and load tests, and execute measurements. These actions allow them to identify issues, make improvements, and release new iterations of an application – leading to a better, stronger and more scalable service for end-users.

In Conclusion

Load testing remains critical whether an application is a mobile, web or client/server design. Therefore, a performance testing company should plan for dedicated resources, who would be experts in development, execution, and keeping load testing up-to-date in line with customer standards and requirements. Customers have several choices in the market, and their expectation of a high quality application should guide performance testing companies in executing their services. Load testing ensures that the application delivers even under heavy user loads, traffic spikes, failover switches, and situations fraught with network speed variables. To work with the very best performance testing company – connect with our experts.

A Plan is Essential for the Success of Performance Testing

A Plan is Essential for the Success of Performance Testing

Time remains a critical factor that governs (and impacts) various metrics – such as the profitability of an enterprise, the performance of a business venture, the ability of a commercial outfit to survive in competitive markets, and a lot more. This assertion ties closely with the efficiency with which business software packages operate, ideally in tune with the rough dictates of modern commerce. It stands to reason that businesses must deploy tested and proven software packages which would have been subjected to extensive regimens of Load Testing and Performance Testing. These indicate testing processes to assess the performance of a system in real-time conditions under sustained workloads.

Testing professionals deploy such tests to assess the responsiveness and stability of a software package or system under conditions that would be beyond the normal load. A planned rollout of tests in various configurations appears key to the success of Performance Testing systems and practices.

A Plan is Essential for the Success of Performance Testing

Focus on System Performance

Conventional sources of knowledge assert Performance Testing systems and techniques examine the ability of a software application (or system) to perform under different quantum of workload. This form of software testing is widely endorsed by software testers owing to its ability to probe various parameters of a system – which may include scalability, reliability, and resource usage of a particular software-driven system. Pursuant to this, some advocates promote the idea of engineering high levels of performance into the architecture of a system – prior to the actual coding by software developers.

Validate Fundamental Features

Experts view the Load Testing aspect of Performance Testing methods and techniques as key to generating success in software testing projects. The former implies a stringent testing regimen that helps validate crucial sections of a system purely from the perspective of functionality. This causes significant downstream effects in the form of heightened levels of customer confidence in the validity (robust build) of a digital product.

A Plan is Essential for the Success of Performance Testing

In addition, Performance Testing exerts a significant thrust on generating outcomes that helps testing professionals and software developers to continuously improve a given product. This assumes significance because enhanced features and diversified functionality helps businesses and companies to bring newer iterations of a product or service to market – pushing them ahead of their competitors.

Testing the Quality of Code

This is a crucial aspect of the professional responsibilities of a software testing engineer. Hence, Performance Testing plans and regimens can be fine-tuned to test the performance of a software application under sub-par operating conditions – this brings forth the true picture of the quality of software code and the underlying functionality of the code. The leaders of a modern QA Company must appreciate the fact that outcomes generated by Performance Testing mechanisms can help software developers impart additional speed, stability, and scalability to an existing software application.

Updating User Models

Performance testing specialists must invest continually in efforts that hinge on updating the user models of a particular application. This implies frequent activity that would include running statistics against production logs with a view to validate testing efforts and expanding the user base. Experts with deep knowledge of Performance Testing and Load Testing concur that such activity should be executed on a regular basis. The outcomes can include the eventual development of a robust application that leads to emphatically winning the confidence of customers and clients – an indispensable method of trouncing competition.

User Community Modeling Language (UCML)

The ability to read through test cases is critical in ensuring the success of a Performance Testing regimen. Some testers advocate the use of spreadsheets and User Community Modeling Language (UCML) in devising test plans. The utility of such actions reside in the ability of the UCML to describe system usage in formats that can be deciphered by lay users and novice testers. These actions also allow the operation of Load Testing schedules, with a view to assess system performance under different operating conditions.

Plugging Loopholes

The main tenets of Performance Testing enable test professionals to identify loopholes in an application. Such identification is necessary to prevent the inefficiencies from draining system resources and be able to drive optimum levels of customer satisfaction. When competently executed, Performance Testing also reduces the chances of system failure, thereby creating a solid business case for increased investments in such techniques. The proponents of such testing techniques are able to ensure reduced expenses that follow the development of an optimally tuned software application, as also its concomitant benefits for end-users.

Improved Optimization and Load Capability

The ability to deal with larger numbers of users remains a critical indicator of the success of a software application, and Performance Testing equips testers to assess this inherent ability of a system. This is also referred to as scalability, which is vital to handle future and heightened demand. Further, the outcomes of Performance Testing that enable software developers to optimize the performance and capacity of a certain system, ensure higher levels of ROI for the end-user, while validating the key goals of a modern testing regimen.

In Conclusion

These are some of the factors that necessitate a testing plan for performance testing professionals. The dual scope of expansion and refinements in such testing programs can ensure higher levels of success in these endeavors. Software testing on any front will never achieve success on a consistent basis without a robust and structured plan. We are leaders in the realm of diverse software testing since we ensure that all testing is preceded by a meticulous plan. Connect with us to gain the distinct advantages we offer.

Why is Performance Testing Needed?

Why is Performance Testing Needed?

Performance Testing is a key element of the software testing process as it validates that the performance of a software application meets the expectations under its expected workload. Performance Testing can augment an application by eliminating the performance bottlenecks, and ensuring that the application achieves the speed requirements and is stable and scalable.

Performance Testing is needed to measure, confirm, and verify the operational capabilities of an app before it is released to the market. More specifically, some of the reasons why the Performance Testing of an app is required have been listed below:

To Ensure that an App Achieves the Basic Performance TargetsA Performance Testing Company gives its testers the task of evaluating the performance of an app against some basic performance targets. Some of the parameters used by the testers to gauge the performance of an app include the speed, response time, reliability, resource use, stability of the app under changing user loads, and the maximum user load it can handle. In addition, tests are also carried out to check whether the app is compatible with all networks -2G, 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi networks – and different operating systems like Android, iOS, and others.

To Highlight the Performance Issues Affecting an App

The aim of Performance Testing is to underline the issues that affect the performance of an app across different networks, bandwidths, and varying user traffic. Hence, the main task of the testers in Performance Testing is not to detect bugs, but to make sure that the app behaves in a certain way (that is the way it was intended). The testers highlight the performance issues of the app such as the slowing down of the speed during simultaneous use by several users, poor usability, and inconsistent performance with different operating systems.

Why is Performance Testing Needed

To Remove Performance BottlenecksPerformance Testing makes an app market-ready by removing the bottlenecks linked to device performance, network performance, server/API performance, and operating system limitations. Since speed is one of the most significant characteristics of an app, Performance Testing assesses the ability of the app to load and respond quickly, for retaining the attention and interest of the users. Furthermore, it also corroborates that the app can be scaled for future upgrades.

To Identify Issues Related to Database and APIsThe Performance Testing method involves various types of testing, chiefly Load and Stress Testing. With sourcing data and API performance being extremely crucial for testing an app in present times, Load and Stress tests enable testers to identify database and API issues. To be more specific, these tests facilitate the testers in determining the behavior of the app, checking the response of the server to the user with data in a given time gap, and measuring the API performance under heavy load.

To Improve the Responsiveness of an App

The responsiveness of the app under testing is a major concern for a business focused on achieving its objectives. Performance Testing comprehensively examines the response time taken by an app under numerous networks and circumstances. As most of the tools used for conducting performance tests are browser-based, the testers can carry out concurrent tests to ensure that compatibility of the app with different browsers and platforms.

Performance Testing makes an app market-ready

To Enhance the Robustness of an AppAn efficiently conducted Performance Testing procedure can make the app under testing more robust, thereby enabling it to withstand critical times. The different types and tools of Performance Testing improve the sturdiness of the app for its sustainability in the marketplace through relentless performance. With increased robustness, the app can avert a potential underperformance during network problems and even a possible crash because of cyber-attacks or virtual threats.

To Support the Market Claims of a Business and Generate RevenueIt is pertinent for a business to verify that an app substantiates its market claims by delivering the promised speed and stability. Performance Testing Services can support the claims made by the business since the proper execution of performance tests can guarantee that the performance goals of the app are duly met. An app with good performance metrics eventually generates revenue for the business as it gains better traction with the users who visit the app frequently.

To Conclude:

Performance Testing makes an immense contribution to the final and pre-release performance of a software application. Performance Testing underscores thorough testing of an app in diverse situations and, thus, helps a business in releasing an app that boasts a smooth and stable functional operation. Such an extensive performance test mechanism ensures that the app reaches the desired performance levels. Therefore, testers conducting Performance Testing on an app can effectively prove that the performance of the app under testing remains consistent regardless of bandwidth availability, network fluctuations, or the user-traffic loads. We excel in this realm – connect with us to know more.