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Writer's pictureOngeziwe Bulana

The Role of Load Testing in Software Performance


Load testing in software testing

How fast a page loads has been found to be the most weighted factor in terms of impact on user experience. The performance of your website can make or break your business. 


Research shows that how fast a page loads is the most significant factor affecting user experience. In fact, most users abandon a page after just 8 seconds of waiting, and it’s estimated that $4.4 billion is lost annually due to poor performance. Investing in performance is not just about speed it is also about enhancing user sentiment and engagement.


What is Load Testing?

Load Testing is a non-functional software testing process in which the performance of software application is tested under a specific expected load. It determines how the software application behaves while being accessed by multiple users simultaneously. The goal of Load Testing is to improve performance bottlenecks and to ensure stability and smooth functioning of software applications before deployment.


This testing usually identifies 

  • The maximum operating capacity of an application

  • Determine whether the current infrastructure is sufficient to run the application

  • Sustainability of application with respect to peak user load

  • Number of concurrent users that an application can support, and scalability to allow more users to access it.


Consider the following load testing examples

  • A popular toy store was overwhelmed by traffic from a marketing campaign, resulting in lost sales and wasted advertising dollars.

  • An airline website struggled to handle over 10,000 users during a special offer, leading to frustrated customers and missed bookings.

  • An Information provider offered free access to their online database but could not keep up with the influx of traffic, causing prolonged accessibility issues.


Key Performance Metrics

When analysing the performance of the web server under test, focus on two critical parameters: Throughput and Deviation.

  • Throughput represents the server’s ability to handle a heavy load. The higher the throughput, the better the server performance. For example, Google’s server boasts a throughput of 1 491 193 requests per minute, indicating robust performance. In contrast, Yahoo's throughput is significantly lower at 867 326 requests per minute. (source)

  • Deviation measures the variation from the average. A smaller deviation indicates better performance consistency.

NOTE: The above values depend on several factors like current server load at Google, your internet speed, your CPU power etc. Hence, it’s very unlikely that you will get the same results as above. So do not panic!


Goals of Load Testing

Loading testing identifies the following problems before moving the application to market or Production:

  • Response time for each transaction

  • Performance of System components under various loads

  • Performance of Database components under different loads

  • Network delay between the client and the server

  • Software design issues

  • Server configuration issues like a Web server, application server, database server etc.

  • Hardware limitation issues like CPU maximisation, memory limitations, network bottleneck, etc.

Load testing will determine whether the system needs to be fine-tuned or modification of hardware and software is required to improve performance.


Prerequisites for Effective Load Testing

Before beginning load testing, ensure you have established the following:

  1. Response Time Metrics: Measure and compare the response times quantitatively and ensure they’re applicable and realistic.

  2. Test Environment Setup: This includes hardware platforms, software configurations, server machines, and network configurations.


An environment needs to be set up before starting the load testing:

Hardware Platform

Software configuration

  • Server or Cloud Server

  • Operating system

  • Processor

  • Server software

  • Memory


  • Disk storage


  • Load machines configuration


  • Network configuration


How to Conduct Load Testing

The load testing process can be briefly described as below:

  1. Create a dedicated test environment.

  2. Determine load test scenarios and transactions for the application.

  3. Prepare data for each transaction.

  4. Predict the number of users accessing the system.

  5. Configure connection speeds and identify different browsers and operating systems used.

  6. Execute test scenarios and monitor various metrics.

  7. Analyse the results and make recommendations.

  8. Fine-tune the system and re-test.


Best Practices for Load Testing

Load testing should be planned once the application becomes functionally stable.

  1. A large number of unique data should be ready in the data pool

  2. Number of users should be decided for each scenario or scripts

  3. Avoid creation of detailed logs to conserve the disk IO space

  4. Try to avoid downloading of images in the site

  5. In the process of executing load testing test cases, the consistency of response time over the elapsed period should be logged and the same should be compared with various test runs.


Differentiating Load Testing from Other Testing Types

Load Testing

Stress Testing

Functional Testing

Identifies bottlenecks under various workloads.

Determines the breaking point of the system.

Results are predictable with defined steps.

Checks how the system reacts to gradual load increases.

Examines system behaviour under extreme loads.

Results vary slightly

Generates increased load on a web application.

Focuses on stability and recovery from failure.

Frequency of execution is high.

Advantages and disadvantages of Load testing

Advantages of Load testing:

  • Understand what occurs under load

  • Performance bottlenecks identification before production

  • Improves the scalability of the system

  • Minimise risk related to system downtime

  • Reduced costs of failure

  • Increase customer satisfaction

Disadvantages of Load testing:

  • It is possible to spend too much time on this type of testing.

  • Increased costs related to placing cloud systems under load


Load testing isn’t just something extra, it's a must have to make sure your apps and software works well under real world conditions. By finding performance issues early, checking system capacity, and making tweaks, load testing helps avoid expensive downtime, protects your brand, and keeps customers happy. A good load testing plan means smoother experiences for users, more room to grow, and a solid base for the future. 

Make load testing a priority today to keep your software running smoothly. 

Contact Zamaqo to see how we can help get your system ready for the real world.


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