Overview of Performance Testing and types of performance testing

Performance Testing finds out the speed and efficiency of the system, computer, product or device. Performance testing is testing that is performed, to determine how fast some aspect of a system performs under a particular workload. A software related performance problem can easily get identified through performance testing.
Performance testing demonstrate that the system meets performance criteria. It can compare two systems to find which performs better. It can also measure what parts of the system or workload causes the system to perform badly.

Types of Performance Testing

1.Load Testing : A load test is usually conducted to understand the behavior of the application under a specific expected load. Examples of load testing include:
- Downloading a series of large files from the Internet.
- Running multiple applications on a computer or server simultaneously.
- Assigning many jobs to a printer in a queue.

2.Stress Testing: It determines the load under which a system fails, and how it fails. There are various varieties of Stress Tests, including spike, stepped and gradual ramp-up tests.
3.Volume Testing: It test what happens if huge amounts of data are handled.
4.Soak Testing: The system is runm at high levels of load for prolonged periods of time.
5.Configuration Testing: The process of testing a system with each of the configurations of software and hardware that are supported.
7.Timing testing: It evaluates response times and time to perform an action.