End user perspective in software application development is the most important aspect, during the course of development incorporating benchmarking trends like performance testing increases the chances of a well performing application. Besides functional testing which ensures that the software is built in the desired manner i.e. as per the customer requirements, non functional or quality requirements also play a critical role in determining the success or failure of a software. Software Performance test cases are done to ensure software is resilient and its desired performance parameters pass stress and load requirements. It is done to determine the responsiveness of a software application. This may involve measuring the software response time or MIPS (millions of instructions per second), unit of software response to an instruction in time. There are many qualitative attributes like reliability, scalability and interoperability which are also evaluated to establish an overall performance overview of software solution.
Objective of Software performance testing is:
– Determining the performance and reliability of a software under varying workloads
– Establishing software configuration which provides the best software performance
– Establishing acceptance of software
– Identify application bottlenecks
Load testing is done to test the software responsiveness in heavy workloads which are as realistic as in real time or production. Load testing can be applied to software in terms of number of concurrent users or total number to transact. The application is monitored and checked for response time and performance under heavy workloads and transaction volume. Stress another test in performance is also done to check for how much system capacity in terms of resources can sustain in terms of desired performance. Software responsiveness and stability is investigated and observed through test tools like Load Runner, Silk, IBM Rational Performance tester etc. These test tools simulate the software test cases as per desired workloads and transactions and based on this software performance report is sent out. This report specifies a testing environment, what was tested and how was it tested. On the basis of test results and reported performance data, statistical algorithms are used to derive performance trends and behavior w.r.t. change in workloads.
The following can be established on the basis of same.
– Response times
– Resource utilizations
– Volumes, capacities, and rates
– Component response times
– Trends
One more important aspect of performance testing is to set up performance criteria and limits. It must be realistic and hit software performance requirements of software on the nail. Software Performance Testing is the best method for the technocrats assures stability, latency, Server response time, throughput time etc.