Testing ASP.NET Web Applications

8.1. Performance Testing Basics

In Chapter 5 you learned about the many different types of functional testing; it was in this section that you first heard of the many types of functional testing grouped under the "load testing" umbrella. Developers will group each one of these very specific types of testing into the generic term load testing, when in reality each type of testing is a strict discipline in itself. In this chapter, the term performance testing is used as a generic term to refer to a test that determines the responsiveness of a web application.

Performance testing, volume testing, load testing, stress testing, scalability testing, capacity testing, and performance testing encompass all types of testing that leads us to the same goal: that users will be able to use your web application as the application grows. This chapter covers each one of these types of testing in detail. You'll learn how to collect performance requirements, how to create performance tests, and also how to analyze the results that have been collected through the process. After you've learned how to test a site for performance, you'll learn how to plan for the future using capacity testing to get a good idea when it's time to upgrade the web application server architecture and hardware.

This chapter is not intended to be a guide in how to increase performance in your web application. Instead, you learn how to find bottlenecks that will help you remove the problems with performance in your site. ...