MT - 52 - Volume testing!

Volume testing is a kind of non-functional testing. As the name says the volume testing is performed to see the behave of the system over a large volume of data.
As an example we can take an application which is performing very well but there are very users for that application. But in future the number of users will keep growing and growing. Hence we would want to see the response of the system over a larger volumes.The purpose of volume testing is to determine system performance with increasing volumes of data in the database.
Also we can take an example of online ticket booking. Suppose a alrge number of users started booking tickets. So here we need to see that how the system is responding over a large volumes. We can also  check that the correct data is saved without failure.
Volume test shall check if there are any problems when running the system under test with realistic amounts of data, or even maximum or more. Volume test is necessary, as ordinary function testing normally does not use large amounts of data,rather the opposite.

MT - 51 - Stress Testing !

Like load testing stress testing is also non-functional testing. Stress testing is a generic term used to describe the process of putting a system through exertion or stress. The Stress test can combine aspects of performance testing and security testing. It is performed to see the behaviour of the system beyond its maximum capacity. It may be used to find the breaking point of the system where the system starts behaving abruptly.Stress tests commonly put a greater emphasis on robustness, availability, and error handling under a heavy load, than on what would be considered correct behaviour under normal circumstances.

Lets take an example that on an application there are maximum of 1000 visitors on the daily basis. Now to perform stress test we will see the behave of the system beyond 1000 users. We will observe the throughput and response time  at increased loads beyond 1000. We keep on increasing the load until the system breaks.

MT - 50 - Load Testing!

Load testing is a kind of non-functional testing which is all about measuring response of the application on the given load to measure the response and see the behaviour of system.A load test enables you to measure response times, throughput rates, and resource-utilization levels, and to identify your application’s breaking point, assuming that the breaking point occurs below the peak load condition.Load testing is done to see the behaviour of the system on the given controlled load whether its normal or too high. It helps seeing the behaviour of the system at different expected loads.It involves simulating real-life user load for the target application. It helps you determine how your application behaves when multiple users hits it simultaneously.

Lets take an example of the application which is having 1000 users on the daily basis and criteria given is that the response time should not be more than 2 seconds. So now to do the load testing we start measuring the response of the system from a low load. Suppose we start at 40 users then we keep on increasing till it reaches 1000 and at different stages we measure its response.Its done in such way because there may be possibility that on the load of 100 users the response time becomes 5 seconds so there will be no use of testing it at heigher load.

The primary goal of load testing is to define the maximum amount of work a system can handle without significant performance degradation on a given controlled load.

Tools Used : Load Runner , Jmeter