Why Load Testing and Stress Testing is Vital
Technology is not unbreakable, many programs have their breaking point at which they no longer will work to their full capacity. It is important to determine the capability of any new program before it goes to market by either testing it using load testing or stress testing. These sorts of tests can be compared to software performance testing because that is basically what they are doing.
Load & performance testing and stress testing both deliberately overload a program or system to test its breaking point. They also test the program in normal conditions to show how it should be working when all variables are normal. It is important when it comes testing a program that it gets tested in two different fashions: endurance and longevity. Not only does a programmer want their program to work quickly, but they want their program to have a long existence of service. Most software programs cost a great deal of money to actually reach a workable capacity, so throwing in a load or stress testing at the end of its programming is vital to its success.
Some of the main elements stress testing and load testing test for include:
Downloads of large files from the internet
- Number of downloads that can be done at a time
- Assigning multiple jobs to a printer queue
- Writing hard disk data
- E-mail and the internet traffic
- Running multiple applications at once
Load and stress testing can be done in multiple different ways. They offer programs that help test out your software or website to prove its performance rate. If the software program being created is being programmed by a high volume software development team, there may already be a person on site who is able to put a stress or load test on the software.
Depending on the software program that is being tested, there are different variables in which load testing test for, it is a beneficial way to prove a system capable and performance. It also lets programmers know if their system needs some fine tweaking before it can go to market. It is important for all new software programs to be subjected to some sort of load or stress testing because if not, a system may not be capable of handling the capacity load and could crash.