Complete Performance Testing Process in 6 steps

In this blog, we will study the performance testing process in detail. We will be studying each and every step involved in the performance testing of web applications. 

There are following steps involved in the performance testing of an application-

1. Performance Test Requirements Gathering & Analysis:

In this phase, all the details about the application are collected from the client and other stakeholders of the application. The key questions asked from the stakeholders are-

• Details of application architecture and design.
• The anticipated concurrent user load.
• Any performance benchmarks or performance acceptance criteria.
• The knowledge of high performance critical workflows.

2. Testing Tool Selection:

In this phase, there will a selection of the performance test tools. There are various reasons that need to be considered while selecting a performance test tool-

• Application type and architecture - One of the major things to consider while selecting a tool is the type and architecture of the application. E.g. for performance testing of SOAP web service we may prefer selecting a tool like LoadUI which is custom made for load testing of SOAP web service.
• Project Budget - On the basis of the budget allocated for performance testing, we need to choose between free and paid tools.
• Test Specific Requirement - The basic requirements of a performance test is also considered while selecting a test tool e.g. there might be a requirement of performing load test for 10000 users, many available tools do not effectively support this much load. Hence, a tool capable of effectively carrying out the project requirements of the performance test should be selected properly.
• Expertise required for scripting - The expertise or experience of the QA team with a particular tool also choose and operate the test tool selection. Some tool can work on simple record and play back principle, others require good knowledge of particular language.

3. Performance Tests Planning:

In this phase, strategizing the whole performance testing process includes. The major activities performed in this phase are-

• Performance test infrastructure and environment setup.
• Identification of the use case scenarios to be scripted.
• Specification of the total users load to be simulated.
• Specifying the test configuration for example duration, number of user distribution between different scenarios etc.
• Selecting and using the test result metrics, using different listeners for collecting and analyzing the executed test results.

4. Test Script Implementation:

In Test Script Implementation phase, the performance test scripts are created using the tool selected in the previous phases. The two activities performed during this phase are-

• Creation of test script on the basis of scenarios chosen in the planning phase.
• Creation of different test data for different scenarios of the performance test.

5. Performance Test Execution:

In Performance Test Execution phase, the test script is executed for a predefined time specified during the planning phase. At the same time, the performance test progress is governed along with the different aspects of the server like CPU usage, memory consumption etc.

6. Test Result Analysis

The Test Result Analysis phase includes consolidating the test results for determining the different performance attributes of the application and finding the performance bottlenecks. The test results along with any additional information about the application state will be shared with all the relevant stakeholders.

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