Performance, Load, and Stress Testing

What is a Performance, Load and Stress Test?

• Performance:
  • Performance testing is a type of testing for determining the speed of a computer, network or device. It checks the performance of the components of a system by passing different parameters in different load scenarios. [1]
• Load:
  • Tests actual user load on any application or website and checks how the application behaves during normal and high loads. Performed when a development project nears to its completion.
• Stress:
  • Tests that determine the stability and robustness of the system. It is a non-functional testing technique. This testing technique uses auto-generated simulation model that checks all the hypothetical scenarios. [1]

Function of Performance, Load, and Stress Tests:

• Performance:
  • Performance tests measure performance against established criteria under a workload, considering latency, through put, stress, response time, or scalability tests where applicable
  • Performance is measured and reported against thresholds and benchmarks
• Load:
  • Load testing typically improves performance bottlenecks, scalability and stability of the application before it is available for production.
• Stress:
  • Measures the system on its robustness and error handling capabilities under extremely heavy load conditions. [2]

Test Results:

If new conduct several tests to establish Thresholds and Benchmarks. If established use known Thresholds and Benchmarks to test against.

• Performance :
  • Performance Testing Metrics (for a full list of results to look for)
• Load :
  • Helps testers and developers identify the maximum operating capacity of applications as well as system bottlenecks.
  • Results of load tests can be unpredictable
  • Load testing depends on the number of users.
• Stress :
  • Testers and developers should analyze the behavior of the system after a failure. For stress testing to be successful, a system should display an appropriate error message while it is under extreme conditions. [2]

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Compare Performance, Load, and Stress Testing:

Comparison Chart Link

Load vs. Volume Testing, What is the Difference? [3]

• Load
  • The load testing is done by changing the user loads for the resources and verifying the performance of the resources.
  • The primary focus of this testing is on ‘users’.
  • The server is stressed to the maximum limit.
  • A simple example can be creating a large number of files.
• Volume
  • The volume testing is done to verify the database performance against a large volume of data in the DB.
  • The primary focus of this testing is on ‘data’.
  • The database is stressed to the maximum limit.
  • A simple example can be creating a huge sized file.

Popular Testing Tools

• LoadNinja
• NeoLoad
  
• HP LoadRunner
  
• JMeter
  
  • Reading JMeter results: https://octoperf.com/blog/2017/10/19/how-to-analyze-jmeter-results/

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Resource(s):

• [1] https://www.guru99.com/performance-vs-load-vs-stress-testing.html
• [2] https://www.guru99.com/stress-testing-tutorial.html
• [3] https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/what-is-volume-testing/
• TestingAcronyms
• CommonTestingTerms

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Index of Testing Types: https://ultra.guide/bin/view/Testing/DifferentTypesSoftwareTestingIndex