Load Testing vs Performance Testing

Performance testing and load testing are two terms that are often used interchangeably despite being quite different from each other. Actually, load testing is just one part of performance testing. It is, therefore, a type of performance testing that focuses on a specific part.

Load and performance testing are often used in software engineering in order to have a realistic view of how the software performs. If the performance is below acceptable levels, tweaks or improvements need to be done. Areas needed to be tweaked can also be exposed by load and performance testing.

Performance testing places the software in a scenario that replicates the final usage environment of the software. It is then put through all the possible things that could happen in order to find out if the software performs as it should or if there is an unforeseen bug that may cause erratic behavior.

An important part of performance testing is load testing. This is a scenario where the software is simulated at different load levels; light load, moderate load, heavy load, and everything in-between. This is to see at what level would the performance of the software begin to degrade considerably. The loading can be anything from number of simultaneous connected users to processing intensive tasks. With load testing, the developers can find out which areas of the software cause bottlenecks that cause performance degradation. It is also a great tool in setting a realistic limit as to the load that the system can handle. The developers can then create mechanisms that prohibit this from happening. Examples of such mechanisms would be the queuing of users or tasks so that the software only gets what it can manage.

There are also other aspects of performance testing aside from load testing. All testing methodologies are designed to a specific scenario, whether typical or extraordinary, that can possibly happen to the software being tested. It is also important to conduct tests on whether a software is able to recover from failures even if it is not very likely to happen; even more so in large deployments where resources are located in remote servers.

Summary:

1.Load testing is a part of performance testing.
2.Performance testing aims to improve overall performance by finding bugs and bottlenecks.
3.Load testing focuses on the system’s response when under very heavy loads.

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