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.
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.
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.
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.
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