Editing Software performance testing (section)

== Testing types ==
=== Load testing ===
[[Software load testing|Load testing]] is the simplest form of performance testing. A load test is usually conducted to understand the behavior of the system under a specific expected load. This load can be the expected concurrent number of users on the [[application software|application]] performing a specific number of [[Transaction processing|transaction]]s within the set duration. This test will give out the response times of all the important business critical transactions. The [[database]], [[application server]], etc. are also monitored during the test, this will assist in identifying [[bottleneck (software)|bottleneck]]s in the application software and the hardware that the software is installed on

=== Stress testing ===
[[Stress testing (software)|Stress testing]] is normally used to understand the upper limits of capacity within the system. This kind of test is done to determine the system's robustness in terms of extreme load and helps application administrators to determine if the system will perform sufficiently if the current load goes well above the expected maximum.

=== Soak testing ===
[[Soak testing]], also known as endurance testing, is usually done to determine if the system can sustain the continuous expected load. During soak tests, memory utilization is monitored to detect potential leaks. Also important, but often overlooked is performance degradation, i.e. to ensure that the throughput and/or response times after some long period of sustained activity are as good as or better than at the beginning of the test. It essentially involves applying a significant load to a system for an extended, significant period of time. The goal is to discover how the system behaves under sustained use.

=== Spike testing ===
Spike testing is done by suddenly increasing or decreasing the load generated by a very large number of users, and observing the behavior of the system. The goal is to determine whether performance will suffer, the system will fail, or it will be able to handle dramatic changes in load.

=== Breakpoint testing ===
Breakpoint testing is similar to stress testing. An incremental load is applied over time while the system is monitored for predetermined failure conditions. Breakpoint testing is sometimes referred to as Capacity Testing because it can be said to determine the maximum capacity below which the system will perform to its required specifications or Service Level Agreements. The results of breakpoint analysis applied to a fixed environment can be used to determine the optimal scaling strategy in terms of required hardware or conditions that should trigger scaling-out events in a cloud environment.

=== Configuration testing ===
Rather than testing for performance from a load perspective, tests are created to determine the effects of configuration changes to the system's components on the system's performance and behavior. A common example would be experimenting with different methods of [[Load balancing (computing)|load-balancing]].

=== Isolation testing ===
Isolation testing is not unique to performance testing but involves repeating a test execution that resulted in a system problem. Such testing can often isolate and confirm the fault domain.

=== Internet testing ===
This is a relatively new form of performance testing when global applications such as Facebook, Google and Wikipedia, are performance tested from load generators that are placed on the actual target continent whether physical machines or cloud VMs. These tests usually requires an immense amount of preparation and monitoring to be executed successfully.