Software has become an integral part of our daily activities, be it shopping apps, games, social media, banking apps, or websites. As users, we expect software to operate quickly and efficiently, without bugs and glitches. To ensure the smooth operation and optimal performance of applications, businesses invest a lot of time and resources into performance testing.
In this interview, we will discuss the basics of performance testing with Andrii, a Test Automation Engineer at DreamProIT, and explore the different types of performance testing, the common problems it reveals, and the best practices and tools to conduct performance tests.
What is performance testing?
“Performance testing is a type of software testing conducted to evaluate how well the software performs under a particular workload. It involves not only testing the speed of applications but also evaluating and measuring other performance-related aspects such as scalability, reliability, and resource usage. Essentially, its major objective is to identify and eliminate performance bottlenecks, ensure stability under varying loads, and enhance user satisfaction by providing a seamless and efficient user experience.”
What common problems can be revealed by performance testing?
“Running performance tests can help identify many potential issues that hinder the application’s seamless operations and might not be apparent during other types of testing. These problems include:
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Load Handling. Performance testing measures how well the application can manage increased loads and helps to identify at what points the app performance starts to degrade.
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Slow response times. If the software responds too slowly, users tend to get frustrated, which eventually leads them to use the software less. Performance testing can be used to identify the operations or transactions that do not meet the expected or desired outcomes.
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Bottlenecks. Bottlenecks can significantly limit the application’s performance, affecting various components of the software, such as database, application code, network, or third-party services. Performance testing allows you to pinpoint these issues and address them proactively.
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Scalability limitations. Performance testing evaluates the application’s ability to adapt to increased workloads or user demands by scaling up or out and determines how effectively it handles such scaling.
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Resource utilization. Monitoring resource utilization can help to identify inefficiencies under varying loads and usage patterns, which often lead to degraded performance and poor user experience. Performance testing can assess how the application utilizes various system resources (CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network bandwidth) under normal and peak loads.”
What types of performance tests are you familiar with?
“Overall, there are several types of performance tests, each using its own methodologies and serving its own purpose.
Load testing. This type of performance testing measures how the application performs under different load levels. Load testing simulates a specific number of users accessing the application simultaneously to test its behavior under normal and peak load conditions. It primarily examines response time and system stability to ensure that the software can handle the expected workloads without degradation in performance.
Stress testing. As its name suggests, the main objective of stress testing is to assess how the application behaves under extreme conditions and measure the system’s stability. It determines the application’s robustness by testing it beyond its normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, to see how it handles extreme loads that exceed the expected peak loads.
Endurance testing (also called Soak testing). Endurance testing is carried out to verify if the application can sustain the expected load over a long period of time without degradation of performance. Unlike other performance tests, this testing aims to check the application’s long-term stability and resource usage.
Spike Testing. Spike tests are performed to assess the software’s ability to respond to sudden large spikes in the load. It helps to reveal the system’s pain points when it is suddenly hit with a high influx of requests.
Capacity testing. The goal of capacity testing is to identify how many users or transactions a system can handle before the performance starts to deteriorate. Knowing the capacity limits of the system is important for ensuring optimal performance and scalability of the system.
Scalability testing. Scalability tests are conducted to evaluate the application’s ability to scale up or out in terms of hardware, software, and network resources. It helps to ensure that the software will perform as expected even when resources or the number of users increase.”
What does an effective performance testing strategy look like?
“The approach to performance testing may vary depending on the needs of an organization and the performance metrics it finds most relevant. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of any performance testing remains the same, so here are the universal steps that most performance testing plans will include:
Planning and analysis. As with any type of test, performance testing starts with the analysis of the systems architecture and clearly defining the performance criteria and objectives based on the organization’s expectations and technical specifications of the project. At this stage, it is also important to identify critical performance test scenarios and establish baseline metrics for key performance indicators (response time, throughput, and resource utilization, under normal operating conditions).
Design and development. Once the performance test scenarios are identified, develop detailed performance test cases and scripts. Configure the test environment to mimic the production environment as closely as possible.
Execution. The next step is to run the tests according to the established plan. Start by conducting baseline tests to establish performance benchmarks and then execute performance tests.
Monitoring and analysis. During the test execution, continuously monitor system resources and performance metrics. Analyze the test data to identify any performance issues or bottlenecks.
Tuning and optimization. Based on the analysis, make adjustments to the system configuration, code, or architecture to address identified issues and optimize system performance.
Re-testing. After the implementation of optimizations, repeat the performance testing process to verify their effectiveness and ensure that no new issues have been introduced.
Reporting. Finally, document the testing process, findings, observations, and recommendations for future reference.”
What common performance testing tools do you use, and what factors do you consider when selecting a tool for a project?
“There are many performance testing tools available today, both open-source and commercial. Each tool comes with its own set of features, capabilities, pros, and cons. The choice of a testing platform highly depends on the specifics of your project, its objectives, the expertise of the testing team, the supported technologies and protocols, ease of use, integration capabilities with other tools, and even your budget.
Among the open-source solutions, I prefer JMeter and Gatling. JMeter has an extensive plugin ecosystem and works perfectly for load and performance testing, while Gatling is widely used due to its high performance and ease of use.
If you are looking for commercial platforms, I would recommend LoadRunner and WebLoad. Both tools offer advanced features and support for various protocols, technologies, and applications.”
Final thoughts
Performance testing is an important component of the application development lifecycle. It ensures that the application can handle high traffic loads and meets expected performance expectations. By understanding its principles, types, strategies, and tools, software teams can proactively identify and address performance issues, ultimately enhancing the quality and reliability of their products.