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Types of Performance Testing

In this article, we delve into the various types of performance testing in a testing environment, highlighting the key differences among them like load and stress tests, throttle, peak, and scalability tests, which are crucial for identifying and rectifying issues.

As mentioned by Mercedes Quinteros in this article, CEO of Qualitas Test Team, Performance Testing Services allows us to evaluate how a product performs in terms of stability, scalability, capacity, and speed. The results obtained with performance tests allow organizations to obtain information about performance bottlenecks in an application, performance levels, comparison of systems to find out which one works best, and infrastructure improvements.

Find out why Performance Testing Services are the Master Key to Improving Your Software in this article.

In the realm of performance testing, among the various types of performance tests commonly mentioned in the test environment, there are some standard names that are familiar, and associated with different concepts derived from the terms of various performance testing tools.

Below are some of the most common types of performance tests, with an explanation of the differences between them:

Distinguishing the Different Types of Performance Testing

First and foremost, do you know the Difference Between Functional Testing and Automated Testing? Keep reading to learn more! We also share with you a Complete Guide to Automated Functional Testing.

In our examination of performance testing, we explore various types including Load Testing, Stress Testing, Endurance Testing, Throttle Testing, Peak Testing, and Scalability Testing.

Load Testing

Load tests are meant to simulate the maximum use of the system, for which we must analyze the number of users (user traffic) that will have access and the operations that will be executed. 

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Stress Testing

Stress tests

When it comes to stress tests, the purpose is to find the stepping-up breaking point by executing the most accessed transactions (typically) in an incremental manner as to the number of users, until the system fails.

A stress test will indicate the maximum number of users that the system can support, with the infrastructure in which it is installed, and how long it takes to recover regular functioning after the system has been down for a period.

Endurance Testing

This type of performance test is meant to test the system performance for longer periods of time, in order to reveal other types of problems. These may come up following the accumulation of problems, as in the case of a memory leak and to analyze how the system behaves while following a specific period in operation.

Throttle Testing

When speaking of throttle testing, we refer to a simulation of the load, with a limited speed of connection of virtual users (all of them or just a group) to analyze the response time obtained by those users connected through lower speed networks (3G, distant areas, through the Internet, etc.)

Speed simulators or traffic shapers are used in these tests, in addition to some tools that have this functionality included.

Peak Testing

This type of performance test is useful to analyze how the system behaves when it is exposed to intensity peaks mixed with a regular load, showing the recovery following the increased load. This sort of situation happens in reality, so it is interesting to analyze the system’s behavior in such cases.

Scalability Testing

As the name reveals, conducting performance testing such as scalability testing enables us to analyze how the system escalates. It indicates, for example, how many virtual users we can support if another application server is added, or improvements in timing when we add more CPU to the database server. 

Being able to run performance tests such as scalability tests is crucial. These kinds of performance tests should be executed during the software development cycle or before launch, in order to be able to detect performance issues before the end user faces them.

If you are interested in learning more about the best continuous performance testing practices, we invite you to read this article.

The figure below represents some of these performance tests and what the graph of active virtual users would be like throughout the testing time.

Graphs of different types of performance testing: load testing, endurance testing, stress testing and peak testing

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