There are various types of non-functional testing that checks non-functional aspects of software such as performance, stability, usability, etc.
A testing type which is used to check extremity of software is Stress Testing.
It is also an important aspect of testing which testers should be aware of. Stress testing is used to check the usability, stability, and reliability of software when it is working more than its maximum limit.
Why There is a Need to Conduct Stress Testing ?
- Using stress testing for software will help the test team to interpret the performance of the system during its failures. What happens when it reaches its failure and crashes down? Test team gets to know the behavior of the software.
- It will enable the test team to check whether the data has been saved by the software before crashing or not. This test will verify if the software is crashed, will the data be restored?
- Another reason to conduct stress testing will enable the test team to understand the behavior of the software before crashing. Does it display any effective error while crashing or just display random exceptions? The test team will be able to get the answer through this test.
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- While crashing, software sometimes may face security issues which cause problems in the future. Thus, it will enable the test team to understand the security of software is not affected by unexpected failures.
- Executing stress testing will enable developers and testers to be prepared for extreme situations in software.
- The test will also check the stability of the software. If the system fails under stress, the company may face a tremendous loss in their revenue. It will prepare the software to never fail its operation if working under heavy stress.
What can Stress Testing Achieve?
To achieve a successful stress testing, software must display an appropriate type of error when it is operated under extreme conditions.
The main purpose of stress testing is to analyze the complete software after it has been failed and also to ensure the system is recovered after that failure.
Conducting stress testing means to provide a huge set of data that can be lost while processing this testing. It is important that this security based data should not be lost while doing the test.
How Stress Testing is Different from Load Testing?
Load Testing: Generally, load testing of software is done under normal workload conditions. The main aim of load testing is to check whether the increased load can be sustained by the application or it is crashed down. Load testing is more like simulating actual workload on the application and is gradually increased over a certain period of time until it reaches the peak level of actual workload.
Stress Testing: Generally, stress testing is similar to load testing. The load to the application is increased gradually with multiple requests to the server until the application crashes down. Unlike load testing, it checks the unexpected limit of the software until it reaches the breakpoint.
| Load Testing | Stress Testing |
| · Helps tester to determine the reliability of the software. · Helps tester to understand the behavior and observe the performance of the software under multiple loads. · The software is tested with a maximum number of users that can be operated by the software. · This test does not cause the software to break. |
· Helps tester to determine the stability of the software. · Helps tester to determine the breaking point of the software under extreme load conditions. · The software is tested with more than maximum number of users which it may not handle. · This test causes software to crash and break. |
Types of Stress Testing
There are different types of stress testing which are listed below:
- Distributed Stress Testing: In this type, the testing of the system is done across all the clients present in the server. It is also referred to as distributed client-server testing that distributes the stress tests to all the stress clients on the server to observe the status of the client. The server starts sending the data to the client for testing as soon as he adds the client on the server after making contact. Client’s system sends a signal to the server to show it is connected, if the server does not receive any signal then the client’s system is to be checked for debugging.
- Application of Stress Testing: This type of stress testing usually deals with the identification of defects that are based on performance, network issues, data blocking and data locking in software.
- Transactional Stress Testing: This testing is done on transactions between two or more systems. This test is usually used for optimizing and fine-tuning of the system.
- Systemic Stress Testing: This test usually checks for defects where the data of one application blocks the other application. This test can be tested across multiple systems that use the same
- Exploratory Stress Testing: This type of stress testing usually includes unexpected conditions that undergo through a system to check whether it can withstand the condition. These are the parameters which are not likely to happen in a real-world Conditions like a number of users logging in simultaneously or inserting a large amount of data to the database simultaneously.
Tools Recommended to Testers to Perform Stress Testing
To perform this testing, testers can utilize tools which are listed below:
- JMeter: JMeter is an open-source Java-based tool which can be used for stress testing and performance testing. It can be used to cover all aspects of tests including stress, function, and load
- Load Runner: Load Runner is a tool used for load testing of software. It determines the behavior and performance of the system under load conditions.
- Stress Tester: Stress Tester is another tool which can be used for this testing. This tool offers a high level of analysis for web application performance and provides reports in the form of graphical representation.
- Neo Load: This popular tool can be used for load testing of mobile and web applications and can easily simulate thousands of users to evaluate the performance of the application under load.
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