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What Are the Types of Performance Testing?

performance testing

Performance testing is one of the paramount evaluation techniques for both software houses and companies relying on third-party applications. It is crucial for effective program maintenance, capacity and resource planning as well as cost estimation.

While performance testing methods focus on the assessment of an application’s response, there is a differentiation between particular types. Consider it for planning your testing strategy.

Manual and Automated Performance Testing

A level of involvement of technical experts sets manual methods apart from automated procedures. Manual testing is based on inspecting and reporting the changes in the software performance manually.

Depending on a solution, automated testing can handle these tasks with less human supervision. For instance, a fully automated performance testing tool such as Executive Automats, allows companies to create reusable test cases and simulate pick load scenarios with numerous concurrent users for assessing the responsiveness of Microsoft Dynamics 365 without coding skills.

Executive Automats is an example of a no-code tool tailored to the testing requirements of a particular suite. It is also possible to build your automated testing solution from scratch using one of the dedicated libraries, however, such a project can be handled only with the assistance of professional developers and testers.

Both manual and automated tests share the same types described below. Note that you can perform them to assess the entire application or suite or evaluate only separate components.

Load Testing and Soak Testing

Load testing is regarded as the most basic performance evaluation of software latency, throughput, and overall behavior. Usually, it utilizes a regular load volume. Even if an increased volume is used, it does not overcome a level typical for an application.

Soak testing can be considered a variation of load testing performed during a prolonged period. It is an opportunity to validate long-term effects on the software, for example, the changes in disk space and memory leaks. There is no specific timeframe universal for every application, although in many cases, it takes up to several hours.

Stress, Scalability, and Spike Testing

Stress testing is similar to load testing, although this time, the load exceeds its normal volume to the point when a system crash is expected. The method is a practical way of learning the maximum capacity of software without compromising quality requirements. Additionally, stress testing gives insights into the components that will fail first in the case of an overload.

Stress tests are frequently used as a foundation for scalability testing. The difference between the two techniques is in their purposes.

While stress testing looks for the threshold of its normal performance, scalability testing uses stress tests to see the potential for effective expansion. By understanding the scalability of your software, you can choose the best course of action. The results of your tests might be satisfactory and you will avoid unnecessary investment in additional resources. On the contrary, if you see the system requires improvement, you will be able to make the right decision for immediate optimization or setting a long-term goal depending on the capacities and needs of your company.

Spike testing is close to stress testing, albeit, this technique is based on a sudden increase of the load rather than a gradual growth. This form of testing is useful for predicting the behavior of your software in unexpected situations, whether they are positive such as being featured on massive platforms, or negative, for instance, an inordinate amount of reports about a system bug.

Configuration Testing

Configuration testing can be viewed as performance testing executed as a part of regression testing. It is common for cloud-based software, for instance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system mentioned above.

As a rule, such applications are configured during their implementation to suit the users’ needs. Anything you decide to customize including software dependencies, services, or environment can dramatically affect performance. Therefore, configuration testing helps to identify weak points and address them before you roll out the modified software in your company. For some applications like ERP systems, configuration testing is an absolute must as any alternations can affect core business processes.

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