Before a product is launched in the market, it is essential to check the stability, scalability and speed of the product under a wide array of loading conditions.

Hence, an effective performance testing is done for ensuring that the software is accomplishing different acceptable criteria for the responsiveness and robustness under a reasonable load.

It is considered to be an integral part of unit testing and helps in creating realistic performance benchmarks.

When you are about to release a software or application in the market, you need to ensure that it is accomplishing certain pre-defined performance requirements as well as user expectations like usability and response time.

In the digital age, end users have zero tolerance to error prone or slow applications which might crash owing to the heavy load. Hence, you should ensure to conduct performance testing which is useful in validating and verifying if the software is accomplishing specific pre-defined benchmarks of the performance of software.

Performance testing refers to the process of determining the effectiveness or speed of the software in various conditions or circumstances like heavy traffic or load.

Best practices for realistic performance testing

Speaking of performance testing, there are multiple best practices which are useful in bringing an improvement in the overall effectiveness of the product. Here is a list of five best practices which are helpful to conduct performance testing effectively:

Understanding the application

Before implementing performance testing, it is a must to gain an understanding of the software, the capabilities, the intended use and the type of conditions in which it can thrive.

The software testing team should gain an understanding about the limitation of the product. It is recommended to list out certain common factors which might have an impact on the performance of the software. You should also ensure to give a consideration to the parameters prior to testing.

Making an integral part of the unit tests

There is a wide array of times when performance testing is implemented in the advanced phase of the lifecycle of a product. It is challenging and expensive to implement any changes in the process of development of the product. In addition to wasting your time, it burns a hole in your wallet. Hence, it is recommended to implement performance testing as an integral part of the unit tests. It is beneficial to the team for the identification of different performance issues as well as rectifying them with the progress of the team.

When it comes to unit testing, there are various approaches to testing. The team should concentrate on different sections of the code, instead of the functionality of the software. Implementation of performance testing is useful in identifying the issues at the earlier phase of the product development. Thus, the developers can work with the testers as a team to bring out an improvement in the product quality and ensuring that it is accomplishing the expectations of the end user.

Setting realistic software performance benchmarks

At times, the expectations from a specific product might not be realistic. Hence, it is recommended to set the right and realistic baselines by choosing realistic and practical scenarios. You should make sure that the test buds is inclusive of various varieties of environments and devices in which the software can survive.

For instance, you should expect traffic from various browsers, devices and operating system. However, you cannot predict the load for ensure. Hence, every environment and device needs to be taken into account in order to measure the performance of the product.

It is not possible to start test stimulation from zero. Majority of the tests are known to be conducted from the base which is followed by the addition of load till the required threshold is attained. However, it is not recognized to be realistic and it offers a false picture of the system load to the test engineer.

Understanding the performance from the perspective of the end users

Though you may be completely aware of different aspects of performance testing, it is crucial to gain a prerequisite understanding the perspective of the end users. Hence, it is a must to focus on the server's response. In addition to this, you need to give a consideration to the user experience. If the server load tests are accurate and satisfactory, it does not indicate that the end user is going to have the similar kind of experience.

Tests should be capable of capturing the user interfaces timings and experience of the end user in a systematic manner along with the metrics which are derived from the server.

With the combination of the different perspective of the end user which includes the beta version of the software, it can help you in capturing and determining the user experience. It is essential to monitor the behavior of the end users and the derive the metrics for measuring and understanding the user experience. It will be beneficial in solving different experience related problems prior to the launching of a product.

Implementation of DevOps

At present, a vast array of business organizations are dependent on shorter lifecyle of software development along with test automation. If you take a look at the performance testing, it can consume a lot of time and it needs consistent human intervention for ensuring success. Implementation of DevOps culture is beneficial in bringing the test and development team together. It helps in the identification of different errors via continuous testing and resolving them in no time.

There are a wide array of business organizations which make use of micro services and containers. As the testers adopt the containerized load and performance testing services, it plays an integral role in testing different functions of the software or application in isolation. It is beneficial in identifying different flaws and errors so that they can be fixed during the early phase of software development.

It is crucial to opt for performance testing for the success of the product. Though it might consume a lot of time, it helps in the development and testing of software applications and products in a successful manner.