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The Critical Need for Stress Testing Web and Mobile Applications

The Critical Need for Stress Testing Web and Mobile Applications

Testing one’s limits is something we all experience every day, and in the realm of web and mobile applications it is important that a little pressure is applied for a company to know how these function. Stress testing determines the level of efficacy of capacity of networks, programs, devices, applications, and systems under load / stress conditions.

Stress and load testing is most often combined with overall performance testing, but all must be conducted by a reputed performance testing company. Stress testing is also referred to as Endurance Testing, and the application under testing needs to be put ‘under stress’ for a short span to know how much it can withstand. The underlying use of stress testing is to determine the limit at which the software would stop functioning as it should and breakdown.

Stress Testing Web and Mobile Applications

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).

Why to Run Stress Tests?

It becomes critical to run Stress Testing in order for the website and applications to be able to manage the unusual spikes in ‘traffic’, and failure to hold up in the wake of such spurts, could mean poorly / not functioning apps and websites, leading to loss of reputation and revenue. Your performance testing company must work as a value added partner, and conduct stress testing for several other reasons as well.

It is important to run stress tests to know whether the systems will work under atypical and deviant conditions, and whether an accurate error message will be displayed when such conditions exist. System failure is one of the top causes for lowered user experience, and results in people logging of and never returning and spreading negative word of mouth. Such negative experiences lead to a massive dent in the reputation of a company, which in turn erodes revenue sources and profitability.

Load Testing

Stress Testing Objectives

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.

How to Use Stress Testing Tools?

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.

Stress Testing

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.

In Conclusion

Stress tests monitor memory, networks, processors, and more, to ascertain the ability of the system to quickly recover to normal post a failure. It would be highly imprudent to leave the accuracy and ‘resilience’ of websites and mobile applications to chance. Connect with us to secure your expensive ‘products’ and ensure long standing engagement from current and future customers.

Why is Load Testing Important?

Why is Load Testing Important?

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.

In Conclusion:

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

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

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.

Stress Testing

Distinctions between Performance Testing, Load Testing, and Stress Testing

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.

Load Testing: The aim of this form of testing is to measure the ‘behaviour’ and response time of an application when the usage ‘load’ is higher than normal. While the application may be a bit slower than usual under high load, load testing services ensure that the application can manage and work under such conditions and not crash the server.

Load testing is about characterizing and replicating the actual workload by starting at low usage numbers, gradually increasing the usage over some time, until the desired system load is reached, checking for stability, and then reducing the numbers gradually again.

Load 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.

In Conclusion:

The exposition clearly emphasizes the significant distinctions between performance testing, load testing and stress testing, while highlighting the scope of each type of testing and the scenarios for their usage. Connect with us to get the best in class service and the highest quality of experts to run these tests and more for your esteemed business.

Performance Testing Terminologies

Performance Testing Terminologies

Application software has a business driven agenda, which form the dominant driving force behind developing and managing them. A layman might find software similar, but there exists several differences between them – they greatly differ in performance statistics. In the tech business industry, performance testing is essential for keeping track of the software performance. It also forms the basis of many service level agreements between development vendors and clients. This is a highly critical process and involves rigorous performance testing along with load testing and stress testing for detailed insights about the performance and scalability.

Performance testing is all about testing the mobile network or an application software against an evaluation rubric containing numerous terminologies and physical quantities of time and efficiency measure. The software is run in an actual deployment environment. It is done to make sure that there are proper performance metrics achieved.

Here are all the necessary terminologies you may require while executing performance testing.

Connect time

Connect time is defined as the overall time taken by the application software to set up a TCP connection between the server and client – with the client requesting operations and retrieval of data. An application software that is built on a client-server architecture has to set up a connection between the server and client through TCP.

Any data passage occurs only after a successful TCP; which is a must. All the further information and requests can only be exchanged between a client and the server after this critical handshake is successful. It is important to note that the transfer of data does not occur through the TCP/IP protocol, but it happens in the data layer of the OSI model. Here small packets of data in bytes are transferred through package routing. It is monitored initially by the handshake and then driven by requests.

Latency Time

Latency time is the duration of a round trip when information is requested and then it reaches the target along with the return time. Latency is one of the major factors which makes the users feel that particular application software is operating slower or maybe lacking as well.

This generally occurs because of a mechanism due to which data packets hop at several interlinked nodes. It is a route from the data center to the client fetching them. It measures the latency from the first moment of sending a request to fetch request until the first byte of data is received at the user’s end. Latency time is a cumulative measure of the latency and connect time both.

Elapsed Time

Elapsed time is an overall measure of how fast or slow an application software works. It is measured as the time at which the first byte of data is sent, and the last byte of information is received at the client’s machine. Server processing time can be calculated as a difference of the total latency time, and the connect time taken after TCP handshake. Download time for any piece of data is the difference between the elapsed time and the overall latency exhibited by the application software.

Throughput

Throughput is the efficiency measure of any application software. It is computed as the number of work requests that are handled by the software in unit time. It is an essential measure while carrying out a performance test on the application software under study. Generally, it comes in a certain number of a request being served within a second or for example number of calls in a KPO/BPO.

Performance thresholds

Performance thresholds are the permissible values of all the physical quantities being measured in performance testing. These include all the above discussed primary time measures and also several others like response time, throughput, resource utilization, disk I/O and network I/O, etc.

Saturation Limit

Saturation is a point during application software performance testing when the server becomes incapable of handling any further requests per unit time. It is the peak of performance which the software is expected to reach and is considered to be a state of optimized resource utilization.

In Conclusion

Performance testing is highly critical and should be given due importance for all software. Complete knowledge of physical quantities and terminologies involved is essential for executing performance testing and should be given due importance for all software. It is critical to keep in mind that extremities of a particular or a set of physical quantities might not help the software achieve maximum resource utilization. Consistently optimized figures of performance are necessary for quality performance on a long term basis, which only a top class software testing company can ensure – connect with us for this reason, and many more.

Preparing a Robust Performance Testing Plan

Preparing a Robust Performance Testing Plan

A performance testing and load testing plan is a document that serves as a roadmap that ensures testing remains organized and on track. Testers and project managers must make such a document to ensure that they do not miss any important updates, results, and can monitor every aspect of performance of the software under normal and stress conditions. An intelligent and meticulously thought out plan is crucial for smooth performance testing and later analysis of the stages of the process.

A good test plan would include aspects to cover every phase in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It would help to ensure compliance with the prescribed standards, and verify the design – post this it is necessary to create production and regression test plans to ensure the seamless working of the product. The user acceptance test plan would manage the stage when the product is handed over to the client.

Test plan document formats, while may have similarities, each test plan would vary with the product and type of organization, and only experts in performance testing would be able to prepare a detailed and effective test plan. A basic performance test plan would have the following components:

Identifying the Plan

This portion accurately categorizes and ascertains the project and could have some types of test plans included. These could be a master test plan – the high level plan encompassing all other plans, level pertinent test plans, and a plan for the major tests such as security and performance testing.

Enlisting Objectives of the Performance Test Plan

Objectives would be got from performance requirements, possible workload, changes required, and other such aspects, and would be true for each module, application, and each business process – and would be listed as part of this portion. It would also include the possible number of transactions, users, and the response times for both normal and peak load periods.

The Extent of the Test / Test Items

This portion would contain a breakdown of the various processes of the business, the different types of loads, the processes that may not fall under the purview of the performance test, and each module of the project that would be tested.

Test Methodology

This portion of the document would layout the timelines, testing environments, test scripts, the process, testing location for each performance test including stress and integrated tests. This portion would enlist the hardware in use, the various testing tools, stages and processes of monitoring, the methods to handle bugs, defects, and errors. It would also include data on errors found and resolved, and the results of the test.

Testing Schedule

In order for testing to be completed within the stipulated deadline, it is necessary to assign dates and timelines for each testing activity. This is a crucial portion in order to make a practical and achievable test plan.

Criteria for Performing and Suspending Testing

This portion of the document would list out the activities necessary for implementing the test, and the activities necessary in order for the performance test to be considered complete. The names of persons responsible for / managing each activity would also be enlisted in this portion. In addition, it is important to mention criteria due to which testing activities could be or may need to be suspended, and under what circumstances the testing process could recommence. All the planned deliverables and key persons responsible for completing each process would also need to be mentioned here.

Risks, Issues and Mitigation

This portion would clearly state any limitations, possible issues, and any related risks and the possible methods to mitigate.

Equipment and Material Requirements

This section enlists the hardware, tools, software, and the other environmental conditions to support testing. The kind of test equipment required would also feature here – this would include the equipment already available, and the ones required.

Lastly, approvals

This is the last but critical portion – signature of those approving the project and the testing is necessary to make the document valid. Ensure that signatures of all stakeholders are present.

In Conclusion

Given that the performance test plan is a guide, it is essential to ensure that it is clear, concise, and effective such that the entire testing process is smooth and remains on track. A top quality performance testing company would be able to prepare such a document and ensure that the testing produces superlative results – connect with us to get all this and more.

Common Performance Testing Errors

Common Performance Testing Errors

The development chain has several stages, and performance testing that includes load testing / stress testing is amongst the last of the pre-production stages. Some testers /developers could thus feel the urge to rush the results, to start testing in order to launch at the earliest. This could prove to be a costly error since performance testing requires time and patience, given that it is a highly complex process. Inadequate and inaccurate planning, scenarios that do not imitate real production environment and unrealistic load testing could lead to a disastrous launch, loss of time, money and the invaluable resources that went into the testing process. In order to ensure a top quality product and error free testing, it is necessary for testers to remain aware of the common performance testing errors.

Undefined goalsLoad testing becomes guesswork without measurable and clearly defined testing goals. In order to accurately align with business goals and requirements, the objectives for load testing must be defined before running tests. The testing goals, as mentioned should have relevance to the needs stated by the client.

No Realistic Test Environment

Without investing time and effort into building an environment that mirrors the actual production setting, load testing could throw up inaccurate results. There are innumerable components in a real production setting, which run intermittently such as databases, servers, tools, integrations, hardware, and many more – and without a realistic setting, all the efforts could prove futile.

Performance Testing Errors

Incorrect Time of TestingIt is a grave mistake to run performance testing at the end of the development cycle – it should be a part of the functional testing cycle. In most cases, the continuous integration system would have automated tests within, and hence it is possible run automated performance testing before the entire application becomes available.

Skimping to Rush Results While building load testing scenarios, most testers are tempted to compromise on time and quality. This can prove disastrous and throw up skewed load testing results. Even in the face of constraints – time, budget, and other resources, it is essential to ensure a thorough job of testing. If it requires an X number of users to test the system, it would be hazardous to use a lower number. Data randomization is another common error, which lesser skilled and less experienced testers and developers usually make.

Beginning with a Large LoadWhile load testing is meant to mimic the number of users in a realistic environment, highly skilled testers will avoid starting the tests with a final load in mind. Isolating bugs and errors becomes impossible with a large load, and testers must instead create a testing environment which grows gradually, allowing detailed monitoring for bugs at every stage.

Overlooking System ErrorsThe main focus of load testing is response time and performance measurement. It is necessary for testers to pick up and pay attention to errors such as incorrect data and strange ‘behavior’ of the system, even with good response times. This would help to identify the load related weaknesses in the system.

Forgetting to Document Test ResultsRunning and re-running load testing will not be accurate without comparing the results from each run. While it may seem laborious to track changes in each of the test runs, documenting the issues, settings of test environments and system under test, the objectives of each setting, and the results and inferences of each test run, is absolutely critical for top quality software. A good QA company with top class team will ensure that results are meticulously and accurately documented.

In Conclusion:

Any process is bound to have errors, and in the performance testing process too errors are commonplace. In addition, avoiding these mistakes may not guarantee a glitch free user experience each time, but understanding them and going the extra mile to rid the system of bugs will give your business the extra edge required to remain competitive. Connect with us to deliver top class user experiences, consistently.