Make Sure a System Still Works When Load Tested
All software gets tested for correct functionality before it is released to customers. Even when the operations are correct, there is still the matter of how well it performs when it is sharing computing resources with many other programs and the machinations of the Operating System when it is also being stressed. This can be done for normal conditions,
In the modern Agile software development environment, testing is always concurrent to development. Yet, there is still the need to do separate Load Testing, which is also sometimes called Stress Testing. This special type of testing simulates the real world conditions, in servers and across networks, that a large number of end users will present to your software, once it is released.
Load Testing has become its own specialty area in software product development, with many tools now available to customize and automate the process. The basic idea is to run your application, o
called “Load Testing,” or pushed to the breaking limit with stress testing.r suite of apps with various levels of stress conditions placed upon it. Where it breaks is where it needs to be fixed. Whatever is considered “normal” for operating conditions should be applied first. When your software can pass the normal level of stress, it is time to really turn the screws with an excessive overload that sucks up all CPU cycles and uses every possible resource in the entire system.
While such a scenario seems highly unlikely, any seasoned IT veteran can tell you the unrealistic stress conditions do sometimes crop up in real life. It is crucial that you know when and where your software will break during such conditions. Of course, the overall plan is to make a new piece of software as bullet-proof as possible. So, when stress testing breaks something, it is important to find solutions.
Stress Testing is actually a bit distinct from Load Testing, as it represents the unreasonable, most-unlikely scenarios. Whether backend systems or websites, deliberate failures produced by stress testing is extremely important for producing final refinements that make the software enterprise ready. The secondary payoff is that you determine the actual performance capacity limits of your software.