In today’s highly competitive and digitalized landscape, the reliability and performance of software and systems are crucial factors for a company’s success or failure. To ensure that these systems operate seamlessly, even under extreme conditions, performance testing plays a fundamental role.
These tests are especially recommended during high-traffic periods, such as Black Friday. At Avivatec, our specialists conduct all major types of tests to ensure that your systems run flawlessly during critical moments.
Want to learn more about what performance testing is, how it works, and its benefits? Keep reading this content to discover all this and much more!
Key types of performance testing
There are several types of performance testing that help evaluate different aspects of a system’s behavior during Black Friday:
- Stress Testing: Assesses how the system handles sudden and significant increases in user load.
- Load Testing: Tests the application against large volumes of data to observe how it responds.
- Scalability Testing: Examines how the system performs when scaling up or down in response to varying user levels, ensuring resources are used efficiently and providing a stable experience for users.
What is load testing?
Load testing is a specific type of performance testing focused on evaluating how a software application or website responds when subjected to varying levels of traffic, i.e., different numbers of simultaneous virtual users. As part of non-functional testing, load testing aims to answer crucial questions such as:
- How does an increase in the number of users impact website performance?
- What is the maximum number of simultaneous users my site can support?
- Where are the bottlenecks in the web application?
- What is the system’s breaking point?
- When will the system run out of resources?
These tests provide valuable insights into metrics such as response times, speed, reliability, and scalability, helping teams identify potential bottlenecks and determine if additional hardware capacity is needed.
Moreover, these metrics can be used to establish performance benchmarks, which serve as a reference for continuous system monitoring. For example, when setting up monitoring tools, you can define specific thresholds for response times and be alerted immediately if these limits are exceeded, allowing for quick problem resolution before they become critical.
What is stress testing?
While load testing evaluates a system’s performance under a predefined workload, stress testing pushes the system beyond its normal operating limits, to the point of failure.
The main goal of stress testing is to identify the system’s breaking point. Although a load test can inadvertently become a stress test, it is typically designed to assess performance at peak traffic levels without causing system failure.
For a more detailed understanding of the differences between load testing and stress testing, including tips and best practices, you can refer to our specific article on “stress testing.”
What is scalability testing?
Scalability performance testing evaluates how a system, application, or infrastructure handles changes in workload, whether increasing or decreasing. The goal is to ensure that the system can support variations in demand without compromising its performance. This type of testing examines whether the system can handle a gradual increase in the number of users, transactions, or data without degrading performance.
During scalability testing, several important aspects are analyzed. First, the system’s ability to scale is checked, meaning whether it can support additional load without losing efficiency.
The efficiency of resource usage, such as CPU and memory, is also evaluated to ensure that the system does not become overloaded. The system’s stability is observed to ensure it remains reliable even under high demand. Additionally, response times are measured to ensure they remain within acceptable limits even with increased load. Data management is another area analyzed, checking how effectively the system processes and stores large volumes of data.
Conducting scalability testing is crucial for forecasting and planning the capacity needed to support future growth of the system. This process helps optimize resource use and ensure a consistent user experience even under high demand conditions.
The test involves defining the scope, setting up the test environment, running the test with increasing load, analyzing results, and implementing improvements as necessary. This way, it is possible to ensure that the system is well-prepared to meet future demands while maintaining stable and efficient performance.
Performance testing with Avivatec!
Don’t wait until the last minute to find out that your system can’t handle the increased traffic and data volume during Black Friday. At Avivatec, we conduct all the tests mentioned above!
Contact Avivatec and explore our ecosystem of technology and innovation. Ensure your system’s optimal performance and minimize risks to the lowest level!
