Heavy-Load Testing

Heavy-load testing provides the answer to some core questions about the functioning of the system:

• how will the system work with a defined number of users,
• how will it work with a defined set of user transaction,
• how does the system react to fluctuating heavy-load,
• how and when will weak points of the application and infrastructure appear,
• when will a failure of OoS (Quality of Services) happen,
• what are the efficiency and capacity levels of the system,
• how will the accident following system overloading be dealt with,
• what is the impact of changes made to the system, etc.

If you are thinking of how to actually carry out such a testing, you will realize that using internal human resources brings several limitations:

• time (remaining Time-to-Market, time of human resources, achievable testing speed, possibility of system breaks),
• resources (Human resources and equipment),
• completeness, demonstrativeness and reproducibility of tests,
• manageability and reliability of testing (human factor)
• systematic process and thorough evaluation.

Heavy-load testing, carried out as a professional service, is based on the use of software tools for heavy-load generation and monitoring, testing methodology and the knowledge of experts from the corporate information systems, incl. the knowledge of server, database, network and applications technologies used. Parts of the heavy-load testing projects are:

• planning, preparation of environment, tests and of data testing,
• interactive:
  • automated generation of user transactions,
  • monitoring of end-to-end user response, operation parameters of the application and infrastructure,
  • register and evaluation of immediate and trend parameters,
  • execution of optimized checks, alternatively changes in the way of testing,
• complete evaluations, documentation and a proposal of possible future measures in order to prevent emergencies.