Performance Testing: Importance and Objectives

In the IT service industry, performance testing of applications is undertaken to evaluate the performance of mission critical applications of organizations. Performance testing ensures that the applications being tested are available, reliable and efficient when put under load. Optimum performance of applications can ultimately ensure that the service level agreement conditions are met with.

Importance of Performance Testing

• Application performance has a major impact on the overall quality and popularity, especially in cases where organizations are dependent on IT for major business activities.
• Clients have a clear expectation when it comes to quality and have become more demanding.
• Every client looks for a reliable and fast application; performance testing ensures that all applications are performing optimally and are available and speedy.
• The need for eliminating bottlenecks has become greater in this competitive business world. Performance testing ensures that bottlenecks are identified and eliminated before the application goes into the production stage.
• Breach in service level agreement conditions can be prevented through performance testing of applications.

Performance Testing Objectives

• To analyze the root cause of problems and plan for solving them.
• To ensure that the application meets the performance criteria of clients as well as the company.
• To ensure that applications take the minimum response time possible.
• To eliminate malfunctions in the application before the production stage.
• To make certain that service level agreement conditions will be met by conforming to a certain performance criteria.
• To minimize cost through performance testing.
• To compare two applications for performance.

Most organizations which are dependent on their applications for business activities have realized the importance of performance testing and are using performance testing solutions which help them prevent problems in applications and meet service level agreement conditions. Until recently, multiple solutions were required for each application. But now, many APM vendors offer performance testing solutions which cover all applications within the organization, so that complicated, separate solutions for each application are not required. That means just one performance testing solution supports multiple applications. Eliminating the need for multiple performance testing solutions also saves costs for the organizations concerned.