Software Quality Assurance Blog

A Performance Testing Glossary

by EDITOR on 15/12/06 at 1:30 pm

Various terms are used to describe the different aspects of performance testing.  Teams that are creating new applications, or modifying existing applications, should be aware of the following:

• End-to-end Test - Before performance testing can take place, it’s important to exercise all component and interface functionality starting with the browser and extending all the way to back-office and legacy functions.
• Load Test - Some hardware configurations use load-balancing software to distribute incoming traffic across multiple web-servers.  Load testing uses special tools and techniques to validate the correct functioning of these components when subject to high volume conditions.
• Performance Test - This term refers to the validation of external and internal application behavior under varying input conditions.  Performance tests will be selected that vary multiple criteria, such as number of concurrent connections, type and volume of transactions,  and/or volume of data throughput.   The goal of performance testing is to stress the system to the breaking point and find weak links.
• Reliability Test - These types of tests are run for longer periods (e.g. 2 to 5 days) than typical performance tests, and are designed to detect problems such as memory leaks which can degrade performance over longer periods of time.
• Scalability Test - A scalability test is an advanced performance test that attempts to predict how the application will perform under various “what-if” conditions.  Scalability tests are typically used to model system behavior in order to gain confidence before peak usage conditions (e.g. High traffic holiday shopping).
• Stress Test - An alternative name for Performance testing.
• Volume Test - A performance test that emphasizes high volume of data throughput.  This type of test is designed to exercise database and data transfer components.