Any industry can experience performance-related problems and high traffic. Whenever a company faces such a problem, the results are the same: a damaged company reputation, diminished sales, and disgruntled customers.
In such scenarios, if a company leverages a performing testing service provider or if it undertakes performance testing, such adverse events are preventable.
But the foundation of success has the appropriate toolkit. In other words, the selection of performance testing tools matters a lot.
Howsoever, the best option will rely on the company’s needs, the financial situation, and the particulars of workload.
In this article, we will explain the necessity for performance testing services and the factors to consider when selecting a performance testing tool.
Let’s begin!!
What Is Performance Testing?
Performance testing is a non-functional software testing technique that assesses how well an application performs in terms of its speed, scalability, responsiveness, and stability under various workloads.
It’s a crucial stage in guaranteeing software quality. Still, many companies frequently treat it as a separate process to start after functional testing is finished and, in most cases, after the code is prepared for release.
The objective of performance testing is to evaluate the following:
- Program output
- processing speed
- Data transfer velocity,
- Network bandwidth usage,
- Maximum concurrent users
- Memory utilization
- Workload efficiency and command response times.
Benefits Of Leveraging Performance Testing Services
- Describes how system components perform in applications under different loads.
- Determines any bottlenecks and aids in their elimination before the manufacturing stage.
- Controls the system’s speed and stability.
- Makes the Performance reports for database components
- Checks to see if the application satisfies the necessary performance goals
- Determines whether the current application can be run on the infrastructure that is currently in place.
- Indicates the application’s level of scalability
- Contributes to showing how reliable the system is
- Specifies the duration of each transaction’s response
- Aids in locating system bottlenecks in cases with high load
How To Select A Tool For Performance Testing?
1. Tool Price
The client’s budget will determine this parameter. Based on price, performance testing tools can be divided into three groups:
- Open source: Scripting, scenario building, test execution, and resource monitoring are all included in this free performance testing tool known as open source.
- Licensed: Depending on the client’s needs or the project, you must purchase the license for such tools. The number of users or protocols determines the license packages. A fully functional set of scripting, test execution, and result-analysis tools is included in a licensed utility.
- Cloud-based: This hybrid performance testing tool only charges when the test is run, and the desired load is generated. The test script can be created using an open-source tool, uploaded to the cloud, and executed. These instruments cost less than licensed performance testing tools.
2. Supportive Protocol
Recognize the nature of the application and the communication channel. It determines whether the tool supports the communication protocol or not.
Most Commonly, apps are web-based or use web services, and many performance testing tools are compatible with those technologies.
3. Hardware Cost
Another important consideration is whether the tool needed any unique hardware designed for test execution. If so, the expense shouldn’t impact the client’s or the project’s budget.
One of the best ways to reduce hardware costs is to use a cloud-based performance testing application. It’s also important to consider that unless the application is running in a secure environment, you do not require any specific hardware for scripting.
4. Transaction & Request
The capability to combine similar requests into one transaction must be provided by the performance testing tool. A transaction is a user action or business step that contains the total number of requests associated with it.
5. Response Validation
The capability to confirm the accuracy of the response given during the test must be provided by the performance testing tool. The absence of this feature causes functional problems that surfaced during the performance test.
6. Result Analyzer
The tool must be able to display the results in various formats, such as graphs, tables, charts, etc., to analyze the test results.
The filter option aids in focusing the analysis on identifying bottlenecks. Graph merging is a feature that can be added to the result analyzer.
The report creation option eliminates the need for manual report preparation by performance testers. Some programs allow testers to create reports in various formats, including PDF, DOC, CSV, and HTML.
7. Ability to work with monitoring tools
A built-in system for monitoring response times, the number of concurrent users and transactions, detected errors, and other metrics should be present in modern performance testing tools.
Additionally, search for technologies that can exchange this data with other monitoring programs for added convenience.
For instance, the open-source tool enables you to arrange and communicate data visualized by your testing tool to project stakeholders.
8. Integration with your CI/CD pipeline
Continuous improvement, responsibility sharing for quality, and a keen emphasis on the needs of the client are the pillars of the DevOps culture.
Teams use continuous integration, delivery, and deployment to speed up software delivery and automate operations.
Selecting a performance testing tool that works well with your CI servers is crucial. For instance, most well-liked CI systems like Jenkins and TeamCity are compatible with open-source devices like Gatling or Apache JMeter.
Wrapping Up
If your application or website has a performance-related issue, a user won’t stay more than a tan of 5 seconds on your website. Performance-related bottlenecks irk users the most.
This is where performance testing helps enterprises to overcome any problem. However, performance testing only becomes successful when it is appropriately amalgamated with a perfect tool.
All in all, adhering to the cited considerations before choosing a performance testing tool can help the testers and company to take a wise decision.
And if you need to create a product that can help you sustain the market while allowing you to take a lead over your counterparts, make sure you spend a good amount of time injecting performance into your digital products.
*The writer is Vice-President Delivery and Operations at BugRaptors who oversees all the quality control and assurance strategies for client engagements. She loves to share her knowledge with others through blogging. Being a voracious blogger, she published countless informative blogs to educate the audience about automation and manual testing.
*The views presented by the author do not reflect the position of The Diplomatic Insight. Nor does The Diplomatic Insight bear any responsibility for the accuracy of the information cited.
