Performance, Performance, Performance! That’s one of the most important concerns in application development. And it’s up to software testers to make sure applications are properly tested for performance. Performance testing allows testers to judge how well an application or website performs under specific circumstances. Measuring the time taken, the scalability and reliability of an action is a key to performance testing.
These below points are recommended to overcome the challenges in smooth functioning of Performance Testing:
- It is important that the users, tasks and environment used for the test are representative of the intended context of use.
- Select the most important tasks and user groups to be tested (e.g. the most frequent or the most critical).
- Select users who are representative of each user group. 3-5 users are sufficient to identify problems. 8 or more users of each type are required for reliable measures.
- Produce a task scenario and input data and write instructions for the user (tell the user what to achieve, not how to do it).
- Plan sessions allowing time for giving instructions, running the test, answering a questionnaire, and a post-test interview.
- Invite developers to observe the sessions if possible. An alternative is to video tape the sessions, and show developers edited clips of the usability problems.
- If possible use one room for testing, linked by video to another room for observation.
- If usability measures are required, observe the user without making any comments. If not, prompt the user to explain their interpretation of the contents of each screen and their reason for making choices.
The best thing about working in an Agile environment is being able to make changes repeatedly. You can take each one of these pointers and try them out for a few times. See how they work before starting some of the more difficult practices around automation.
If you are planning to deploy a new application or upgrade a current product, then it’s worth considering the side-effects if performance is a problem. When brands are damaged, revenue – along with customer loyalty – can be lost.
Commercial pain points
- Compromise of brand integrity
- Loss of customer loyalty
- Loss of revenue from downtime
- Legal and security reasons
Development pain point
- Monitoring response times across multiple transactions at different times
- Lack of confidence in real time behavior to identify potential risk
- Identifying problems in applications to prevent bottlenecks
- Having to test across multiple technologies and devices
- Factoring in multiple set-ups and network speeds.
Monitoring response time for each transaction during a set period of time enables confidence in real time behavior and identifies potential risks. Load testing will highlight problems in application software and help prevent bottlenecks.
Performance testing is a rigorous usability evaluation of a working system under realistic conditions to identify usability problems and to compare measures such as success rate, task time and user satisfaction with requirements.
Image Credit – softwaretestinghelp.com
