Performance Testing Archives

Why is Performance Testing Needed?

by admin | Jun 28, 2019 | Performance Testing, Blog | 0 comments

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Mobile Apps Performance Testing

by admin | May 21, 2019 | Performance Testing, Blog | 0 comments

One of the main reasons why a Mobile App Testing Company assigns Performance Testing tasks to its testers is to ensure that the basic functions of the app work as expected and in a consistent manner. In addition, with Performance Testing, testers can also validate that the app loads and runs quickly in optimal as well as less-than-optimal scenarios.

Holistically, Mobile App Performance Testing is a critical pre-release app testing method that allows the test team to:

•Check the RAM requirements for using the app
•Verify the app’s speed and response time under various networks and circumstances
•Ascertain the highest number of simultaneous users of the app
•Ensure the efficient performance of the app while using data and Wi-Fi connectivity
•Monitor the bottlenecks in the mobile API usage
•Make sure that the app does not crash
•Test out the app to its limits.

To ascertain Server/API Performance of the mobile app, testers determine the response time of the app when it interacts with the server through API. The testers check how the app handles the data sent from and to the servers, how many API calls are generated from the app to the server, and how the app behaves when the server is down or unreachable.

For evaluating Network Performance of the app, testers measure the performance of the app on different networks and network properties, such as network speed, jitters, and packet loss.

A testing company sets up a Mobile App Performance Testing Environment after clearly understanding the requirements and expectations from the app under testing. Additionally, the company also apprises the testers about all operating systems or devices that would need to be tested, along with the different geographical locations that define the real world scenarios.

The testing environment created by a testing company to test the performance of a mobile app consists of:

•Emulators: Software installed on desktops or laptops to act as mobile devices particularly for load testing an app
•Real devices: Physical mobile devices that run on various operating systems including Android, iOS, Windows Mobile and WebOS

Upon the creation of the testing environment, the testers verify the behavior of the app under testing on all devices and networks. The testing environment gives the testers the required setting for conducting performance tests on the app using the most appropriate performance testing tools – such as Robotium or Monkey Runner for Android; and Automator (Mac) for iOS.

Tips for Enhanced Performance Engineering

by admin | Apr 23, 2019 | Performance Testing, Blog | 0 comments

Performance engineering skills are of little use if performance engineers lack adequate knowledge with regard to web development technology. A performance testing company would ensure that its performance engineers are acquainted with the modern web development stack which includes HTML5, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and SQL and database query tools. The knowledge of these concepts enables performance engineers to accurately identify a problem and immediately put together solutions.

Performance engineers must know how to identify and isolate tier-based engineering transactions since it can help them in the analysis phase. Towards that end, it is pertinent for performance engineers to know that, in engineering scripts, a single transaction targets a particular tier — Web tier, App tier or DB tier – of the deployment. Performance engineers can isolate the tier on which they would be focusing their efforts at a given point of time, by degrading a specific engineering transaction.

To get performance results that can be trusted, it is essential for performance engineers to run a single test multiple times. For reliable performance comparison of a test under the same conditions at different times, a test should ideally be executed at least three times. For better evaluation of the results of a test for the sake of performance comparison, the test should be run at least five times. Furthermore, several more executions of a test are required ahead of the final release of an application or software.

Good automation is one of the prerequisites of QA testing of an application and it holds great significance for performance engineering as well. Unless performance engineers ensure good automation, they cannot achieve successful performance engineering. Since good automation enables efficient analysis of test results, performance engineers must remain aware of the reasons and benefits of automation. Automation should be incorporated early in the testing process and testers must consistently gather metrics from the tests.

To conclude, the tips for enhanced performance testing can help performance engineers improve the scale, responsiveness and performance of an application. Trained analytical performance engineers can strive for enhanced performance engineering because of their acquired proficiency in quickly spotting glitches/bugs in software, identifying trends, proving or refuting theories, segregating bottlenecks and eventually delivering reproducible results. Our team consists of the best experts in this realm and more – connect with us to experience the best.

The Critical Need for Stress Testing Web and Mobile Applications

by admin | Apr 18, 2019 | Performance Testing, Blog | 0 comments

While conducting performance testing services, experts will emphasize the need for stress testing and load testing services as well, since performance testing would be incomplete without these tests. Stress testing of web and mobile applications becomes critical at certain times in the life of a business. More people would be driven to the website and applications of a business in the event of a positive or even negative mention of the company in the media, during holiday / festival season, or when a company offers certain benefits / sale / other incentives (especially the online shopping sites).

Given the impact and serious damage that poorly functioning websites and mobile applications can have, analyzing their behavior during ‘stress conditions’ and post a failure are two of the foremost objectives of stress testing. Successful stress testing is when the system is able to display the correct error message during times of atypical and load conditions. A top quality performance testing company will proactively ensure that they run stress tests, to prevent any major damages and risks to your business.

In addition, the experts in the domain of performance testing services will be able to save security related data even while conducting stress tests. Usually large amounts of data are lost during stress testing, and this must be prevented. The system should be able to recover almost immediately post a collapse / failure – ‘recoverability’ therefore, is the main focus of stress testing.

As with any kind of testing, stress testing too must be structured and follow a set of guidelines. Hence, before conducting stress tests, your service partner would first specify the key objectives of the test, the main conditions under which the tests would run, the amount of ‘pressure / stress’ that must be applied, and the standards of measurement to be tracked. Post identifying these objectives, stress testing tools would be required to replicate the possible kinds and amounts of load for each test and record the performance standards. When stress testing tools are used appropriately and accurately, they will be able to realistically capture the situation of thousands of users on the system, and be able to monitor the performance of the application, website, and servers under the atypical load situations.

The final step would be to simulate the potential breaking points of the websites and applications, such that they can be improved before spending valuable resources on production. Stress testing provides the otherwise unachievable insights about the actual performance of the website and mobile applications, thereby allowing a business to make the required changes and augment the systems adequately. The mistake that most businesses make is assuming since that extreme load and stress conditions do not occur during production, they would not happen at all. However, this is a highly vulnerable situation to be the business into, and must be eliminated. Using the expertise of a top performance testing company helps you mitigate such risks and vulnerability.

Why is Load Testing Important?

by admin | May 8, 2019 | Performance Testing, Fixed, Blog | 0 comments

Load testing is a crucial subset of Performance Testing that is gaining immense significance in the present-day technology scenario. Performance testing gauges the ability of a web application to handle large volumes and patterns of traffic effectively, before it goes live.

Load testing of web applications and the APIs is a testing practice that essentially tests the performance of the system under peak traffic conditions. To perform load testing, testers create a model of expected usage of an application by simulating concurrent access of the application by multiple users. Some of the reasons why load testing is important have been listed below:

Measuring the Performance and Quality of Service of a WebsiteLoad testing allows a performance testing company to measure the quality of service (QOS) performance of an organization’s website based on actual user behavior. As part of this type of testing, testers evaluate the performance of the website ‘under load,’ using different frameworks and tools like Apache JMeter, BlazeMeter, Blitz, CloudTest, LoadRunner, Loader.io, and several others. The hardware and software statistics monitored by testers include the CPU, memory, response time of the physical servers, and throughput of the system under test (SUT).

Analyzing the OSI Protocol StackLoad testing tools are capable of analyzing the entire OSI protocol stack rather than focusing on only the GUI performance, as is the case in regression testing. A load testing tool sends out hypertexts transmitted by the web browser upon the click of the button by a user. When multiple-user environments are involved, load testing tools can send out hypertext for all users, each having a distinctive login ID and password.

Identifying Significant Parameters of Application PerformanceWith the help of load testing, the key parameters of an application can be effectively identified. These parameters comprise the response time per transaction of an application, performance under various load conditions of system/database components, design issues affecting the software, and network delays between the client request and server response.

In addition, problems with software configuration such as web server, application server, and database server – are also identified, along with the shortcomings rooted in hardware, such as CPU maximization, memory limitation, and network bottleneck.

Ascertaining the Maximum Operating Capacity of an ApplicationWith the help of load testing, an organization can efficiently ascertain the maximum operating capacity of its application. Since load testing examines how the system behaves under normal load conditions as well as anticipated peak load conditions, testers can spot the elements that cause degradation or hold-ups. Hence, load testing is also called reliability testing, concurrency testing, or volume testing, as it helps testers to check the capability of the existing infrastructure to run the application under test.

Gaining Insight into the Causes for Slow System PerformanceLoad testing can pave the way for top-notch performance testing services. The process mainly pivots around the evaluation of system performance, in order to ensure that there is no system downtime when numerous users access an application simultaneously. Testers can use load testing tools to learn about the reasons behind the slow system performance. These reasons may include application server or software, database server, network latency, network congestion, client-side processing, and load balancing between multiple servers.

Improving the Scalability of an ApplicationLoad testing allows testers to determine the highest possible user numbers that an application can support. This information can be very useful for testers when additional infrastructure is required to meet potential demand for scaling the application in the future. Besides application scalability, testers can also perform special load testing, over and above the regular load testing, during certain events such as Cyber Monday, Black Friday, music festivals or sporting events, and the likes – when there is an enormous spike in traffic due to flash sales or mass crowd interest.

Reducing Cost Implications of an Application’s FailureLoad testing is an important testing technique that can be used by testers for detecting issues in an application before they crop up. The early detection of issues and the subsequent prevention of defects can bring about a significant reduction in the cost implications of the failure of an application. In the absence of load testing, failures during production can lead to massive costs for an organization due to unavailability of the application in high-traffic conditions.

Load testing is a highly productive software testing mechanism that can enable an organization to understand the potential capacity limits of its application or website. Load testing ensures that the software performs to render high user satisfaction, making load testing a significant part of the web design and optimization process. Successful load testing lends the assurance of a high-quality application that can serve a large number of users of the organization. Connect with us to ensure the best quality of applications / software.

Performance Testing, Load Testing and Stress Testing – All are Distinct

by admin | Mar 10, 2019 | Performance Testing, Blog | 0 comments

Several terms revolving around testing are used in the realm of software and automation. Some of these terms however, are erroneously used interchangeably and interpreted as the same concepts – performance testing, load testing, and stress testing are some such terms. It is our aim to bring out the significant differences in these testing types, which will help businesses and testers alike. An expert performance testing company will understand the differences and use these testing methods where and when appropriate.

Performance Testing: This type of testing ascertains the ‘performance’ of the system components under all ‘conditions’ – the response time of a software / application depending on the number of users. Performance testing is necessary to ascertain whether the software is meeting the response time, and its ‘behavior’ under normal conditions. Factors such as scalability, resource usage, and reliability are also tested and corroborated with performance testing. Performance testing are a part of performance engineering, which is aimed at resolving performance issues of the design, and the ‘build up’ of the software / application.

Briefly put: Performance testing is about time – speed, response, request, mean, and throughput – of an application / software.

When to deploy Performance Testing Those in the shift left mode must test consistently. Hire an expert software testing company and they will use performance testing to check the functioning of your website, apps, servers, databases, and networks, and keep your products in top shape. The aim of performance testing is not to detect bugs or errors, but rather it focuses on setting the top standard of performance for the software / application. Closely monitoring the product is the underlying responsibility of performance testing.

Briefly put: Load testing is testing the behavior of an application under both normal and peak usage conditions.

When to conduct Load Testing? Businesses scale and as the number of users increase, they need to understand how many users the system / application would be able to handle, and this is when load testing services become important. Load testing is also used to determine the effect of the load on the system, how the loads builds and remains in the system, and which locations have the maximum user load. Load testing must be done consistently to maintain the efficacy of the system, and get experts to make it part of the testing cycles. Such professional load testing companies would monitor attributes such as peak performance, response time under varying load conditions, server throughput, how many users the application would be able to handle without any negative effect on performance, and the suitability of the hardware in use. The QA Outsourcing Company you hire would do all of this and also plug any mismanagement or leaks of memory in the system. They would also set the service level agreements for the application, which in turn would mean that your business would be getting more for each buck spent.

Stress Testing: While similar to load testing, stress testing uses a different approach. The load on an application is consistently increased until it crashes – the idea is to test the absolute peak limit of an application. Stress testing is usually run at the same time as load testing, the only difference being that the increase in load does not stop until expected limits are attained. When the load is increased suddenly, it is referred to as spike test, and when done gradually the term used is soak test.

When to conduct Stress Testing Companies usually make the mistake of deploying stress testing services only before major events or programs that would have high demand on the application. However, any high quality QA testing services company would tell you that in order to maintain a grasp on the endurance capabilities of your system / application, stress testing must be done often. This prepares the system for any unanticipated ‘traffic’ increases, and prepares you with time and resources to quickly respond to issues and speedily fix any problems. The aim of stress tests is to analyze the behavior of the system post the crash / failure. This is critical to know whether the security of the confidential data is affected post the crash. If the stress testing process is successful, the system would restore itself and its components almost immediately, even if the crash was major.

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To Conclude:

Need for Mobile App Performance Testing

Mobile Application Testing Strategy

Mobile Application Performance Testing Environment

Mobile Application Performance Testing Challenges

Related Blogs

In Conclusion:

Learn the Basics of Modern Web Development Technology

Be Familiar with Effective Performance Testing Tools

Acquire Smart KPI Monitoring skills

Identify and Isolate Tier-based Engineering Transactions

Use Benchmarks as a Basis for Evaluation or Comparison

Focus on Hardware in Addition to Software

Run a Test Repeatedly for Performance Comparison

Ensure Good Automation

In Conclusion:

Why to Run Stress Tests?

Stress Testing Objectives

How to Use Stress Testing Tools?

In Conclusion

In Conclusion:

Distinctions between Performance Testing, Load Testing, and Stress Testing

In Conclusion:

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