Performance testing is used for checking the application behavior across various situations. It helps to ensure the speed, stability, dependability, and scalability of the app. It is a non-functional test that is used for testing the app under a particular workload. Performance testing helps to ensure that the app delivers consistent performance irrespective of network fluctuations, bandwidth availability, or traffic load.
Execution of Performance Test is critical for highlighting issues before the app is launched in the marketplace. QA testers check the app behavior against the target database, network, software, bandwidth, or hardware. The QA testers need to identify critical app usage scenarios, generate test data, plan and design test scripts, identify the bottlenecks, and remove them effectively. Performance testing is of paramount importance for the creation of a robust and responsive application.
Performance test mobile app strategy enables the app to deliver optimum performance and maximize ROI. Here are a few of the essential things you should know about Performance Testing.
Objective
The main objectives of performance testing include the following:
The testers identify the test metrics to run the test cases multiple times till the app delivers acceptable values for each metric. Then, they need to define the acceptable thresholds of each parameter. These metrics are used for gauging Performance Testing. In addition, it enables the tester to determine that the app is aligned with the Service Level Agreement.
Careful planning is necessary for developing the performance test suite. It helps to test that the capacity, stability, and performance are reliable.
The main objective of performance testing is not to find errors but to develop a proactive approach to identify and remove weaknesses and bottlenecks for building a robust product.
Performance test helps to determine that the app response time is consistent over the increasing workload. It also allows testers to establish that the apps show table memory usage over gradually increasing load profile.
Performance Testing Types
The six types of Performance Testing are:
- Stress Testing: It helps to evaluate the app’s robustness and data processing capabilities. Stress testinghelps to check app performance when hardware resources are not sufficient.
- Load Testing: It helps evaluate the app’s performance under an increasing number of users until the time load reaches the threshold value.
- Spike Testing: It is used to test the app’s ability to handle sudden volume increases. It is performed by increasing or decreasing the load on the app.
- Endurance Testing: It is used to test the app performance under load over time. It is a component of load testing.
- Scalability Testing: The measuring attributes include response time, throughput, hits and requests per second, network usage, and more. scalability testing helps to test the app’s ability to scale up or scale down user requests.
- Volume Testing: Volume testingis used for testing the app’s ability to handle data volumes. The testers analyze the system performance increasing the data volume in the database.
Performance Testing Strategy
The testers identify the Performance Scenario to define the performance objectives and specify the data model. The QA establishes the workload to mimic real-world scenarios to gather and analyze data. You should aim for stability, scalability, and high-speed applications with Performance Test Scripts. If the outcomes are not satisfactory, the test scripts are re-run to identify issues and rectify them.
Performance Metrics
Performance metrics are of 2 categories:
- Function Related Metrics: It represents the app’s useful functionality in a particular period. The application points and function points are common metrics under this category.
- Size-Related Metrics: It illustrates the size of outcomes from various activities like the lines written in source codes.
Challenges In Performance Testing
It isn’t easy to emulate the different device-specific features with an online tool. Hence, the tester requires a variety of hardware which can increase the test budget. Based on the operating system version, page layouts and system fonts differ. The tester needs to check the app on multiple devices or install emulators. For efficient testing, the QA tester also needs to condition network quality and user location.
Approach
Testers mainly deploy two approaches testers to assess mobile app performance. In server-side testing, it is used to test the logic and readiness of the app. In client-side performance tests, it helps to verify if the app is fast and efficient. In addition, the testers adopt the user viewpoint to check the response time and interface of the app.
Performance Testing Categories
The performance of a mobile app is measured in three categories, i.e., device performance, server/API performance, and network performance.
Device Performance:
- Application startup time
- Battery time while the app is in use
- Memory consumption
- Hardware and Software variation
- Usage with other applications
- An application running in the background
Server/API Performance:
- Data to & from the server.
- API calls generated
- Server downtime
Network Performance:
- Packet Loss
- Network Speed
Benefits Of Performance Testing
- Hardware And Software Issues: Performance Testing helps to detect the nature of the bottleneck. It identifies the software or hardware-related problem right away.
- Validate Features: Performance testing helps to validate app features by comparing their performance on multiple devices. It enables the tester to verify the speed, image resolution, the flexibility of the app on various devices, operating systems, and networks.
- User Accommodation: Stress Testing helps to check the app scalability. Load Testing helps to identify the maximum load the app can sustain. It allows you to test the app performance in a real-world environment. It helps test GUI, functionality, and usability and delivers consistent performance to keep your users happy.
To Conclude:
Performance testing is an essential part of the app testing pipeline. A stringent app performance testing methodology helps the user to develop a high-quality and user-friendly app.