Software Testing - Stress Testing
Software testing covers both the functional and non-functional requirements. The stress testing is done to evaluate the robustness of the software while it is performing beyond its normal capacity. It is applicable to almost all the varieties of software to evaluate their robustness, performance, error handling and other factors under the hefty load conditions. This type of testing is not focussed on verifying the characteristics of the software in a normal state.
What is Software Stress Testing?
The stress testing is performed to analyze the steadiness, and reliability of the software. It checks the softwares agility, and capacity to handle errors when it is subjected to heavy load. It evaluates the performance of the software beyond its usual working circumstances, and analyzes how it responds in the extreme conditions. It tests whether the software crashes under those scenarios.
This type of testing is also known as the endurance testing or torture testing. The basic objective of the stress testing is to measure how the software responds to heavy load under crisis situations, and to validate whether it is able to maintain its stability in stress conditions.
The stress testing is a very useful procedure to analyze how the financial institutions work under acute economic situations. It evaluates the risks around the investments, conditions of the assets, and keeps track of the internal procedures, and measures. It works with the help of historical information and simulated use cases. The financial regulations imposed on banks force them to conduct stress testing and give a report on how they work with the capital and risk. The Federal Reserve makes it compulsory for the banks having a large quantity of assets to conduct stress testing.
Characteristics of Software Stress Testing
The characteristics of the software stress testing are listed below −
- The stress testing detects the probable hazards, and risks in the software.
- The stress testing performs a qualitative, and quantitative evaluation of the software.
- The stress testing is done by modifying various parameters such as the interest rates, market scenarios, loads, and other factors that can affect the software.
- The stress testing is done when multiple departments from the same company work together.
- The stress testing encourages an environment of transparent communications on the goals, objectives, and scope of testing.
Why is Software Stress Testing Needed?
The software stress testing is needed for the reasons listed below −
- The stress testing is performed to evaluate how the software handles unusual increases in the transactions and users. For example, during the end of the year, there is a huge spike in traffic on any e-commerce applications. The intent of this type of testing is to ensure that there are no losses in business and reduction in customer involvement during those times.
- The stress testing checks the error messages generated in the software under the stress conditions.
- The stress testing evaluates the adequate contingency plans to be used during the unexpected failures due to the stress conditions.
Purpose of Software Stress Testing
The purpose of the software stress testing are listed below −
- The stress testing evaluates the behavior of the software post a failure. It also checks the error messages generated by the software during unexpected events.
- The stress testing verifies how the software recovers to a stable state after encountering failures.
- The stress testing detects hardware defects, and mishandling of information.
- The stress testing validates the security vulnerabilities in the software under uniform peak load conditions.
- The stress testing checks whether the data is protected when the software undergoes a huge spike in traffic resulting in a failure.
Process of Software Stress Testing
The process of the software stress testing are listed below −
Step 1 − The first step involves the planning of the stress testing. It includes gathering the relevant information on the server parameters, database specifications, bandwidth of the network, and active trends in traffic. It also collects the data on how the software executes under heavy traffic and identifies issues of slow page loads etc. Finally, it sets the goals for stress testing, for example assessing capability of the software to handle a huge rise in transactions, and users per minute without encountering a crash or degradation in performance.
Step 2 − The second step involves the creation of automated stress test cases, and identifying the relevant data. It includes the usage of automation tools to generate scripts by simulating user interactions and to create the data to make the stress test cases more accurate, and effective.
Step 3 − The third step involves the execution of automated stress test cases, and collecting the test results. It includes checking the logs to identify the usage patterns, to determine any performance degradations, or failure as the load spikes. In case there are considerable performance issues, the server logs are further analyzed to identify the root cause for them.
Step 4 − The fourth step involves evaluating the test results to identify the relevant issues. The stress test cases are executed in a test environment which is a replica of the production environment. Then the load in the environment is increased gradually to check if how software responds to that. Several log tools are available to capture the important performance parameters such as response time of the server, rate of errors, resource utilization etc.
Step 5 − The fifth step involves tweaking the parameters to optimize the code and other resources such as fine tuning the queries, improving the capacity of the server, network etc. It includes retesting the software to check how it handles a very large number of users per minute with a good response time.
Types of Software Stress Testing
The different types of the software stress testing are listed below −
1. Server-Client Stress Testing
It is also referred to as the distributed stress testing, and is used to check every client connected to the server. It verifies the robustness, and performance of the server by simulating multiple requests concurrently from various clients. For example, in a web application, a huge number of users can make an attempt to login to it at the same time which may lead to crashes.
2. Product Stress Testing
It is done to determine defects connected to data conflicts, network problems, and performance crowding in the software.
3. Transactional Stress Testing
It is done to check multiple transactions occurring among multiple applications. It is mainly done to fine tune the parameters to optimize the overall performance of the software.
4. Systematic Stress Testing
It is done by executing tests in various platforms running concurrently in the same server. It helps to evaluate whether the data processing in one application impacts another application working on an identical server.
5. Analytical Stress Testing
It is done by executing tests with unusual parameters or conditions which are unlikely to occur in real life situations. It is helpful in detecting defects when a huge count of users or transactions are using the software simultaneously.
Advantages of Software Stress Testing
The advantages of the software stress testing are listed below −
- The stress testing identifies the characteristics of the software after encountering a failure, and ensures that it recovers from such a situation.
- The stress testing verifies whether failures in the software result in breaking of the security features.
- The stress testing verifies whether the software works in the correct way in both usual and unusual circumstances.
- The stress testing helps in the effective decision making on the software.
- The results of the stress testing bring more confidence of the project stakeholders, and customers on the software.
Disadvantages of Software Stress Testing
The disadvantages of the software stress testing are listed below −
- The manual stress test cases take a very long time for execution and are not easy to perform.
- The automated stress testing can be performed by testers who are experienced, and have adequate coding knowledge, and skills.
- The stress testing requires adequate time, and resources for its completion, leading to an increase in the budget.
- The stress testing performed through licensed automated tools brings additional cost to the project.
- The stress testing performed through free and open-source tools require time for set ups, and configurations.
- The inaccurate stress testing results in wastage of time, and resources.
Tools Used for Software Stress Testing
The different tools used for the software stress testing are listed below −
- WebLoad
- JMeter
- Neoload
- SmartMeter
- LoadNinja
What are the Metrics for Software Stress Testing?
The metrics for the software stress testing are listed below −
#1) Page per Second − It points to the total count of pages asked for per second, and the total count of pages loaded per second.
#2) Pages Obtained − It points to the average time consumed to obtain all information from a specific page.
#3) Bytes Obtained − It points to the average time consumed to obtain the first byte of information from the page.
#4) Transaction Response Time − It points to the average time consumed to load or execute transactions among various applications.
#5) Transaction Per Second − It points to the total count of transactions loaded per second successfully, and total count of failures encountered.
#6) Failure of Connection − It points to the frequency of failures encountered by the customers.
#7) Failure of System Attempts − It points to the total count of unsuccessful attempts on the software.
#8) Rounds − It points to the total count of test scripts run successfully and unsuccessfully by the customers.
Conclusion
This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software Stress Testing. Weve started with describing what is software stress testing, what are the characteristics of the software stress testing, why is the software stress testing needed, what are the purpose of the software stress testing, what is the process of the software stress testing, what are the different types of the software stress testing, what are the advantages of software stress testing, what are the disadvantages of software stress testing, what are the different tools used for the software stress testing, and what are the metrics for the software stress testing. This equips you with in-depth knowledge of Software Stress Testing. It is wise to keep practicing what youve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.