Volume testing needs two things. Firstly clear expected outcomes of how the
software is to behave for a given level of data. Secondly, data, and lots of it.
The expected behaviour at various levels, should be in the specification
documentation. Ideally this will say something like "the customers details will
be returned returned on the screen within 3 seconds, from a database with 1
million customer records." This gives the tester a benchmark to base a test case
on.
The second requirement for data, needs either real life data, or simulated
data. Usually, real life data will come in the form of a customer database, that
has had private information, such as names and account numbers scrambled.
Alternatively records can be created from scratch using automated tools or by
adding rules directly on to the database, with SQL.
As with all testing, proper records must be kept showing the inputs, outputs
other information, to aid potential debugging and audit purposes.
