Performance testing has evolved considerably over the past 25 years, riding the wave of continuous technological changes and innovations. Now, more than ever, the demand for high-performing, responsive, and seamless applications is at an all-time high.
Most businesses realise how vital performance testing is to customer satisfaction and competitive advantage.
Despite this, many companies rely on older performance tools that are less efficient, less effective, have less functionality, and deliver less value. So while their performance testing strategy is broadly correct, their tactics and execution leave much to be desired.
Luckily, modern performance tools and approaches are more accessible than ever. By adopting these straightforward and powerful solutions, anyone can quickly get their performance testing into shape.
Today I delve into seven important performance testing trends that will help you deliver high-quality, responsive solutions in 2023 and beyond.
The 7 Must-Know Trends in Performance Testing
1. Performance Testing in the Cloud
The cloud has revolutionised various aspects of technology, and performance testing is no exception.
Cloud-based performance testing allows organisations to mimic real-world traffic scenarios more accurately. It provides scalability, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness, which traditional performance testing environments may lack.
Today, more businesses are shifting their applications to the cloud, leading to a surge in cloud-based performance testing. This trend will continue as the benefits of cloud technology outweigh building and running the infrastructure yourself.
Learn about cloud-based performance testing with LoadRunner Cloud.
2. Performance Engineering
Performance Engineering is a broad concept involving a holistic system performance view.
It’s not just about testing the system for performance but also about designing and developing the system to perform. This paradigm shift from performance testing to performance engineering is a significant trend in the industry.
Performance Engineering involves various processes such as system modelling, workload modelling, capacity planning, and performance prediction. It is proactive and begins at the initial stages of the software development lifecycle, thereby aiming to prevent performance issues from occurring in the first place.
Performance Engineering is also about understanding the entire system architecture, including hardware, software, configuration, performance attributes, and how they interact. This understanding helps teams design and develop systems that meet the desired performance criteria.
As organisations realise the cost and efficiency benefits of being proactive about performance, the shift towards Performance Engineering will accelerate. By integrating Performance Engineering principles into your development process, you can ensure performance by design, which ultimately leads to higher-quality, more reliable software.
You can implement performance engineering in 3 easy steps.
3. Shift-Left Performance Testing
Shift-left performance testing means conducting performance tests early and often in the development cycle.
The primary goal of shift-left testing is to detect and address performance issues in the early stages of development. It helps to reduce the overall cost of bug fixes, deliver applications faster and improve the final product’s quality.
The trend of shift-left performance testing is on the rise because it fosters collaboration between developers and testers, allowing teams to deliver high-quality software faster.
It’s easy to implement shift-left performance testing with LoadRunner Developer.
4. Performance Testing on Physical Mobile Devices
As mobile usage continues to rise dramatically worldwide, ensuring optimal performance on mobile devices has become a priority for many organisations.
Thus, performance testing on physical mobile devices has become a significant trend in recent years.
Physical devices offer real-world testing conditions that are hard to replicate with emulators or simulators. They provide the most accurate insight into how an application will perform on a user’s device, including interactions with various hardware and software components, network conditions, battery usage, and more.
Moreover, with the increasing diversity in device types, OS versions, screen sizes, and network conditions, testing performance across a wide range of real devices becomes necessary.
As the demand for high-performing mobile applications continues to grow, so does the emphasis on performance testing on physical mobile devices. This trend will likely continue to gain traction in the coming years.
Learn how to run performance tests on physical devices without investing in your own kit, with UFT Digital Lab.
5. Service Virtualisation
Service virtualisation (sometimes called service mocking or stubbing) is a technique used to emulate the behaviour of specific services in component-based applications.
It provides a way to emulate services, databases, and systems that are not accessible for performance testing.
Service virtualisation in performance testing has emerged in recent years. It allows testers to test software in a controlled environment, even in the early stages of development, when all components might not be available.
Service virtualisation enhances efficiency and productivity by negating the wait time for dependent components. It enables teams to replicate production-like conditions, which, in turn, leads to more reliable and accurate test results.
As businesses move toward Agile and DevOps methodologies, the value of service virtualisation in performance testing is increasingly recognised, driving its adoption.
Learn about service virtualisation with OpenText Service Virtualization.
6. Network Virtualisation
Network Virtualisation simulates hardware and software network situations and configurations.
It plays a critical role in performance testing by providing a way to mimic real-world network conditions. For instance, I know of a bank that uses network virtualisation to simulate a customer accessing their bank account on a train from London to the north.
Network virtualisation helps identify network-related issues that may impact performance.
With the growing number of distributed teams and remote workers, network virtualisation in performance testing is becoming crucial.
It allows organisations to conduct performance tests simulating various network environments and conditions, assessing how the software will perform for end-users in locations with different network configurations — for instance, different internet connection speeds or the effect of packet loss and jitter.
Network Virtualisation will become more prevalent as the demand for remote work options and distributed workforces increases. This approach will allow businesses to enhance end-user satisfaction with high-quality software that performs optimally in all network conditions.
You can access OpenText Network Virtualization free with LoadRunner Professional, LoadRunner Enterprise and LoadRunner Cloud.
7. Chaos Testing
Chaos Testing, also known as Chaos Engineering, deliberately introduces failures in your infrastructure and applications.
Previously called resilience testing, chaos testing has evolved into products that allow organisations to probe their solutions’ resilience and stability under unpredictable conditions.
As we navigate an increasingly digital world where reliability and uptime are crucial, the importance of incorporating chaos testing into performance testing will continue to increase.
When performed alongside performance testing, chaos testing provides an effective way to ensure software robustness and reliability, thus enabling businesses to deliver a seamless user experience, even in the face of unpredictable system disruptions.
Learn how you can quickly introduce Gremlin chaos testing into LoadRunner scenarios.
In Summary
These trends highlight the growing importance and evolving nature of performance testing in the ever-changing technology landscape.
By keeping an eye on these trends and incorporating them into your strategies, you can improve performance and provide a superior user experience.
Businesses that adapt and align their practices with these emerging trends will be better positioned to succeed in the digital age.
