Load testing

Load testing is one of the types of performance testing. Performance testing is a common name for various kinds of tests, such as a stress test, volume test, stability test, scalability test, and stress test, which falls into the same category. The purpose of these actions is to determine how quickly the computing system or part of it works under a certain load.

We prepare for the loading test with analytical work. It is performed to develop a detailed methodology for testing. It helps us to create scripts that most closely model real user behavior. The load during the tests is also based solely on real user behavior.

Load testing is an important part of performance testing. It is done to evaluate the behavior of the application under a given expected load. For an e-commerce project, the load is the expected number of concurrent users of the application who complete a given number of transactions in a time interval. For the system in which citizens sign in to pass the census, it is the estimated number of registrations in the last days of the term. This type of testing allows us to get the response time of all the most important business transactions. In the case of monitoring the database, application server, network, etc., this type of testing can also identify some application bottlenecks.

While testing, we register such metrics as the number of users, server response time, requests per second, transactions per second, error rate, and others.

For the customer we:

• determine the best system architecture, selection of the best platform, tools and implementation languages;
• find out of the most suitable way to store files;
• evaluate and optimize the database schema in the context of improving productivity;
• assess the maximum and minimum system performance and conditions for their achievement;
• determine the nature of the increase in the response time of the system with increasing load;
• detect the maximum number of concurrent users, the excess of which makes the use of the system impossible;
• search out the impact of system configuration on performance;
• assess the system scalability possibilities;
• pick up compliance of network infrastructure with performance requirements.

After evaluating the performance of the system, our experts find suitable solutions on how to improve it.

Conclusions

Load testing is an essential step in evaluating software quality for the following reasons. Most users notice poor application performance, which negatively affects usability metrics. Low productivity reduces the number of useful operations per unit time, which causes dissatisfaction with the use of the software.

Poor performance can cause the application to crash, cause security issues, and other undesirable consequences. Thus, load testing can detect and eliminate a wide range of potential problems that the software tool may begin to experience at the operational stage.