Major Challenges of Performance Testing and How to Overcome Them

Today, the quality of your application is not determined by the number of likes or the number of downloads but by the performance it delivers to users. If your application has any performance-related issues, then it is not going to be a great success. Therefore, Performance Testing is crucial to make sure that the application is performing as it is supposed after it goes live. However, there are some major challenges that are faced while testing the performance of an application.This blog post describes the major challenges of performance testing and how to overcome them. But before that, let us first understand the significance of testing the app’s performance.

What is Performance Testing?

Performance testing is a non-functional type of software testing technique in which the software or application is tested to check its current performance under varying conditions. This testing method is used to check the responsiveness, speed, and stability of the application and ensure that is free from performance killers. The main objective of performance testing is to ensure that the product is working as expected irrespective of various conditions such as bandwidth, traffic load, network fluctuations, etc.

 

Why is Performance Testing Important?

If your organization relies on digital solutions, then it is important to invest in software testing services. Performance testing is a type of software testing technique that checks if your application is performing optimally in any situation. Here’s why you need to invest in performance testing:

• ·    Performance testing checks the speed, reliability, scalability, and stability of the applications under different traffic loads.

• ·     This testing technique also helps to ensure that the application loads quickly and performs seamlessly under different load conditions.

• ·       By testing the performance of an app, you can enhance the user experience by delivering a high-quality and high-performing application to users.

• ·        It also ensures that the application is stable and provides consistent results, no matter how many users are accessing it at a given time.

• ·        This software testing method is also used to check if the server responds to the user with requested data in a timely manner.

Common Challenges of Performance Testing

·         Selection of Inappropriate Testing Tools

Choosing the right testing tools for application is one of the major challenges that enterprises face with this testing method. The selection of the tool depends on several factors. It should meet your testing needs and business-specific requirements, app technology stack, communication procedure, skills of the performance tester, and the licensing cost of the tool. If you choose the wrong tool, it will lead to a loss of testing efforts and time.

·         No Proper Test Methodology and Test Coverage

The implementation of a proper test strategy and ensuring absolute test coverage helps you identify and prioritize project risksand actions that need to be taken.Without proper brainstorming,while developing test strategies and test coverage, it is difficult to get the desired performance test results.

·         Limitation of Time and Budget

This testing method is time-consuming and costly to get better results. Improper planning during application development leads to improper allocation of resources and budget. Thisresults in dependence on low-skilled resources who fail to understand the scope of performance testing operations. This leads to the increased usage of open-source testing tools that exposes the application to various risks. All these factors affect the overall quality of the performance testing process. Professional software testing services experts always make sure to create a proper test strategy and test coverage before initiating the performance testing process.

·         Inaccurate Analysis of Test Results

Software testing services experts need to analyze test outcomes accurately. However, sometimes they face difficulty in analyzing the results properly because of which stakeholders encounter challenges in making a well-informed decision.

·         Challenges in Performing the Test in the Production Environment

Performing load tests in a fully functioning production environment is another major challenge of performance testing. While testing applications in such situations, users are using the application in real-time and any change made in the production environment might impact the user experience.

How to Address the Challenges of Performance Testing?

·         Software testing services experts should properly assess the software under test (SUT). They should also consider the licensing cost to select the best tool for testing the performance of the application.

·         The testers should spend enough time and effort on evaluating and understanding software architecture and other performance parameters such as load distribution, usage prototype, the geography of usage, reliability needs, resilience needs, availability needs, technology stack, etc.

·     Performance test specialists should create a proper and clear test strategy to check the application for these performance parameter sand achieve better performance test results.

·      Enterprisesshould plan for proper software performance testing tasks that need to be considered for the required time duration, and proper resources and budget allocations.

·         The product owner, stakeholders, and test architects should also plan for performance testing as part of the testing strategy.

·         It is good to plan the performance testing tasks in a production-like environment instead of the actual production environment.

Final Thought

Today, companies need software that performs well under all situations. Although there are certain challenges associated with performance testing, there are several reasons why it is so important. By adopting the best practices, these challenges can be overcome easily.

If you want effective test results, you should take help from experienced Software Testing Services experts. They will make sure that your product is reliable, stable, fast-loading, responsive, and high-performing.