Performance testing is one of those phrases on which there is little agreement as to what it precisely means. However the various descriptions given for performance testing show that there is a broad agreement about the non-functional requirements that need to be tested.
Another complication factor is that the various types of performance testing are all done using a load testing tool. The tool, like all tools, enables somebody to do a job, not to do the testing itself. For this you need a trained and experienced performance or load tester.
Performance Testing and Non-Functional Requirements
The performance based non-functional requirements to be tested cover a number of questions which the owners of the system can reasonable ask. These include:
- How many users can the system deal with?
- What performance will each type of transaction have?
- What happens if very high usage occurs?
- What happens if the system fails?
- Can the system operate reliably over a period of time?
Each of these questions then has detail numbers placed against them in order to allow testing to take place.