Load Testing is the core of Performance Testing, which is not hidden by the enterprises. Load testing is the process to validate the characteristic of an application prior to its market introduction. It is widely accepted by the software enterprises and is given a lot of attention and preference yet why is that performance fails at times on crucial days, why the websites are not able to handle load and traffic?
We are all aware of the recent goof-ups that the major online retailers faced. Flipkart, one of the largest Indian online retailers, failed to meet the load that came in on the Big Billion Day sale recently, they had to extend an open apology to its customers in its lack of ability to do so. Such failures cause much more damage than just monetary losses. Many fallbacks come up, like dearth of handling capabilities, result in loss of future business on such crest days, more than any other form of quality.
This is a lesson for us and thus we should be responsible for quality assurance. Let’s take a look at few essentials to bear in mind:
How well do you know your data?
Remember to comprehend your data good enough as you get ready to test. Collate the data of previous years on a scale, how much load you are forecasting, experience from any such crucial days, errors you made last time, geographical locations, etc. You must have all this ready as this caters to better results; it will benefit you in the current release’s load test effort rather than clinging onto the same mistakes again and again by implementing old performance tests that run release after release. Load testing will highlight problems in application software and help prevent bottlenecks.
Don’t schedule last minute testing for the last day
Plan your testing in a way that you get enough days before a crucial day to test and test again. Especially if you have a big day like Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the U.S., lined up for your website. There is no harm to reiterate your tests even if you have done a detailed performance test a month ago. All we aim is not to face a downfall at any cost, so leave no stones unturned to test for any crucial day.
Put yourself in to the customer’s shoes
Not all your customers can be satisfied completely, try and feel the customer’s concern individually. Though it’s a difficult task to practice this as your organization is busy handling other tedious tasks but this is an important aspect that needs to be paid heed to. Try being a customer and see what are the issues that he faces and the mental state he gets in, when things turn bad on a purchase. Surely your work load is not their problem because you are the service providers, you have to make them content with your services. You don’t but the application matters to the customers. So, you along with your team try and empathize while planning the load testing effort. Trust me it will do a great deal and you will benefit. This will also enhance the interest level of your peers to be aware of what does the customer expects and also will polish their testing skills as they will take interest in what loads are expected in the current shopping season as load testing is a highly specialized field of testing, what competitors are offering, any additional influential tools etc.
Once you follow the aforesaid tips, load testing your application will help you continually improve your product and your business. Without adequate prep work, a load test can’t find all that it should.
Happy Testing!
