In our daily lives, we always set a benchmark for our goals and activities to compare functionality or success. Likewise, the same applies to software and hardware testing. This is where benchmark testing comes into play. As you are aware, over the years, the role of benchmark testing has constantly been evolving. It has become more critical as the software and application development industry is witnessing a paradigm shift.

Let’s explore the detailed aspects of benchmark testing and understand how it can improve the quality of your software

What is Benchmark Testing

Benchmark testing is referred to as a part of software testing that measures the functional effectiveness of the program or module by evaluating the results against a set of quantifiable metrics. It is used to determine a repeatable set of test results that serve as the referral point to measure the product or service quality.

Tools for Benchmark Testing

The success of benchmark testing depends extensively on choosing the right software testing tool. While, on the one hand, the correct tools can prove to be path-breaking, choosing below-average or incorrect tools can call for the failure of the test altogether. Therefore, let us check what qualifies as the right tools for conducting benchmark testing:

• You need an appropriate tester that can imitate real-world experiences.
• It should be able to simulate multiple parallel users that will meet and exceed the specifications of the software.
• Also, it must be capable of capturing every transaction and test result to enable tracing them back to the source upon discovery.

How to Perform Benchmark Testing?

First, you must ensure that the testing parameters and environment are similar to compare the results. Benchmark testing takes place in the following phases:

1. Planning phase

It involves identifying and determining the testing parameters, benchmark standards and requirements, and core components critical to the given test. It is in this phase where you must draw the test process.

2. Analysis phase

In this phase, you need to analyze and identify the cause of errors and determine ways to resolve the errors. Then, you set the goals for the test process to improve the product/service quality.

3. Integration phase

This phase deals with establishing the functional goals and sharing them with the stakeholders for their approval on further iterations.

4. Action phase

In this phase, you have to develop the test plan and scenarios, implement the previously specified phases, monitor the same, and run the test repeatedly.

Creating a test plan is extremely crucial when it comes to benchmark testing. Here are the steps that you can follow to design your benchmark test plan:

• Scaling and distributing the workload
• Collate the benchmarking metrics
• Specify the required time span as well as the test process’ termination point
• Keep a backup plan handy to address any test case fails
• Select the authority to decide on the termination of the test process

Goals of Benchmark Testing:

Like every other software test, benchmark testing also has certain goals to achieve. Let us look at the most common goals below:

• Ensuring the application is at par with the minimum requirements mandated by the stakeholders.
• Make iterations and retesting until you achieve the set benchmarks.
• Determining the breaking point of the software or application by amplifying the load and demand to its extremes until it breaks.

Significance of Benchmark Testing:

Setting benchmarks against functional attributes is extremely important to compare their performances. So, in the case of software development, evaluate the performance and outcome of the product against the specified metrics where benchmark testing is performed. We have listed down what makes benchmark testing so significant in the software development and testing community:

• It analyzes the performance of the software/application product/service against the competitors.
• Exposes the hidden errors that might have been missed in other forms of testing.
• Enables the implementation of SLAs (Service Level Agreements).
• Helps in demonstrating and validating real-world user experience.
• It helps to determine the iterations and amendments needed in the program based on the evaluated performance results.

Conclusion

The ultimate success of launching software lies in how well and efficiently it performs when compared to other similar products/services available in the market. And, this is where benchmark testing plays its trump card. It ensures the software/application you are developing is at par with the industry standards and is capable of enduring the load without fail. Thus, it helps you make improvisations to improve the product/service performance.

Source: This blog was originally published at testgrid.io