Continuous Performance Testing: Understanding the Best Practices

Ever since the world started progressing toward the digital wave, the need for technology has increased. And therefore, a greater focus has been developed on the importance of software testing as a part of the development lifecycle.  

However, the traditional practices for software testing were very limiting as they involved testing only when the development was done. And this is how the introduction of more agile and advanced practices like continuous testing.  

With time, continuous testing has become an extremely important part of the software development process. More importantly, the process involves developers, testers, business analysts, and all other stakeholders who are associated with the process of generating requirements.  

At BugRaptors, we have been actively working to deliver performance testing services to clients across the globe. And ever since continuous performance testing has become an essential aspect of software testing trends, this blog will aim to underline the best practices related to continuous performance testing.  

Besides, we will help you understand the concept of continuous testing and its importance as a part of the software development lifecycle of the future.  

Let's begin! 

Continuous Performance Testing: Definition & Importance 

Continuous testing is a procedure of testing early, regularly testing, testing everywhere, and automating. Continuous means undisrupted testing done on a continuous basis. In a Continuous DevOps process, a software change continuously moves from Development to Testing to Deployment. This process helps us to find the risk, address them and improve the quality of the product. 

In other words, continuous testing services have become an imminent part of the modern-day development cycle. Be it an application, enterprise software, website, or public software, it allows testers to get quick feedback on the functionalities and builds. Also, continuous performance testing allows testers to identify defects at the earliest, making the most out of automation and advanced delivery practices.  

Why Is Implementing Continuous Performance Testing Crucial? 

Continuous performance testing is gaining wide acknowledgement from businesses all over the globe. Companies need to leverage continuous performance testing because 

• Continuous performance testing ensures that the application meets performance targets. The software or application must meet real-time business needs and requirements. 
• It helps in managing the overall growth. Continuous performance testing can help you build a planning model that helps you know about your production environment. 
• Continuous performance testing helps in tracking certain useful performance metrics. It is important to include a well-designed performance testing strategy in the form of a matrix so that the businesses can see the trends and prepare for the same. 

Wondering What Performance Testing Could Bring To Your Business? 

Read Here: Role of performance testing for businesses across industries 

• It helps in quickly identifying the major bottlenecks or bugs that can hinder the performance of the software. When combined with continuous testing, performance testing can help deliver more coverage, flexibility, and effectiveness of the service. 

• Continuous performance testing can benefit both the developers and testers by helping them conduct the right tests at the right times. 
• A stable user experience is yet another benefit of continuous performance testing. 
• Continuous performance testing can prevent major outages and can ensure performance service level agreements are met. 
• Continuous performance testing can ensure that the performance doesn't slip over time and also helps in finding and resolving application performance even faster 

The Best Practices For Continuous Performance Testing 

To develop a top-notch, efficient product, the development team needs to perform continuous performance testing. This is because, with it, they can quickly identify key functional bugs as well as those load handling and performance bugs that are always difficult to detect. Here are some of the effective practices for continuous performance testing. 

• Opting test-driven approach 

The product features and test scripts should be created simultaneously so as to give the entire project a good start. This would help in ensuring that there is no need for the testers to revise the test scripts if some changes are made in the software. 

• Communication between developers and testers 

Both developers and testers should knowHow the teams are working. Testers should stay updated about the developmental tasks by attending scrum-like meetings. This communication or collaboration would ensure a smooth and continuous testing process. 

• Developing scenario-based test cases 

Initially, in the traditional development model, there was a requirement for more detailed specifications that were made available to the users. However, in modern developmental processes, a scenario-based test should be created rather than devised test data based on a rigid set of cases. Using such test cases, the tests can cover a wide range of tests that may not be essentially documented. 

• Understanding the testing environment 

Today we witnessed fast-changing testing environments. This is why the testing and the tests need to be dynamic. The companies' staff should develop the script, which in turn can create and configure the requisite virtual environment for running tests. 

• Access to a steady Lab and Test Environment 24/7 

A steady lab implies that all platforms associated with it, together with supporting test environments, third-party tools, and APIs, work every minute with close to zero downtime. 

• Generate and Maintain Test Data 

Banks, insurance companies, healthcare suppliers, and anyone with a mission-basic application need to test against real-world conditions. Therefore, the team should Provide QA testers and developers with high-esteem test data and guarantee that it evolves with the applications. 

• Increased use of automation 

For efficient performance continuous testing, it is important to deploy automation testing through all the processes, especially during the later stages. 

• Increased use of performance monitoring tools 

APM tools or application performance monitoring tools are really important components of testing processes today. Such tools are crucial to be used to increase Shift's right methodology of performance monitoring. 

• Opting for mocking 

One should always remember that even the basic performance tests, when run continuously, can bring lots of benefits your way. By leveraging mock tests or mocking, one can check components in isolation. This way, the team can ensure high-quality tests that facilitate continuous delivery. 

• Tool integration 

Continuous performance testing is always not about automation. Also, it involves the teams using proper tools to make the testing process easier, faster, comprehensive, and more effective. For effective testing, it's important to choose the tools that remove heart operations for the testers, enabling them to focus on what is important. 

• Keeping transparent communication 

It is important for all sorts of testing, and continuous performance testing is no exception. Also, it is essential to keep your communication lines transparent so as to prevent the testing pipeline from becoming chaotic. Bottlenecks can be formed when there is a lack of good communication between the teammates and developers or testers. This is why active communication is the key to achieving the balance necessary to effectively carry out continuous performance testing.  

The Crux 

Be it development or testing, most development companies aim to nurture practices like Agile and DevOps in operations. Moreover, the need for quality products and rapid deliveries has pushed organizations to invest heavily in Quality Assurance services.  

However, most of the time, organizations keep on pushing the agile practices without considering the need to embrace essential practices like automation and continuous testing. Especially when continuous testing brings the potential to work the execution time and create more stable solutions, sticking to such practices becomes necessary.  

But just in case you are struggling to keep up with your performance goals while keeping up with quality, we at BugRaptors have all the knowledge and resources you need to harness high-performing, sustainable, and scalable technology.  

Feel free to reach our experts through info@bugraptors.com