Here’s how you can use Performance Testing to meet your clients’ expectations (and Exceed them)!

In 2022, you cannot compromise the quality and performance of the software applications you build. The performance of your application directly affects the user experience and the reputation of your business in the market you operate in.

This is what makes performance testing important.

An important element of the software development lifecycle, performance testing helps you ensure that the application you built is robust and capable of being rolled out to the end-users. It allows you to understand and meet the requirements of your clients.

What is Performance Testing?

Performance testing is a type of software testing that involves testing the speed, scalability, stability, and responsiveness of a software application under a given workload. It revolves around testing how well your application can perform while handling a specific amount of workload.

Performance testing for software is an important technique to ensure the quality of your application and is often performed before the software is ready to be rolled out. It is a non-functional testing method that is carried out after your application has been developed and passed through functional testing.

Some of the primary goals of performance testing include assessing the processing speed, application output, network bandwidth usage, data transfer velocity, memory utilization, maximum concurrent users, and command response times of your software. After successful performance testing, your software application can be declared as fit to be released and made available for the end-users.

What is the need for Performance Testing?

Let us now have a look at some of the key reasons behind conducting performance testing for your clients’ applications:

1. Meeting Performance Requirements

Developers often work with their clients to create a list of well-defined requirements before starting the project. Once the software application is developed, performance testing allows you to ensure that the application meets all your clients’ requirements when it comes to the app’s performance. For example, if your client intended to build a system that can handle up to 1,000 concurrent users, the testing technique helps you conform to the same before the software is rolled out.

2. Locating Bottlenecks

Performance testing for software allows you to identify and locate computing bottlenecks in your application. Instead of realizing these issues after your client starts using the software, tackling them during the testing phase prevents them from spending unnecessary time and money on the same.

3. Comparing Performances

If your client is willing to compare the performance of their application with that of a market leader, performance testing lets you help them do the same. This allows you to put the quality and functionality of your client’s software in perspective to get an edge over their competitors.

4. Testing Stability Under Peak Traffic

Now that the entire world is on the internet, it is difficult to decide on an upper limit to the amount of traffic your client’s application may receive. The unexpected crashing of a website or a web application would make your client lose valuable opportunities and prospects.

With performance testing, you can test the stability of a software application under peak traffic. It allows you to ensure that the application would keep performing smoothly even if it encounters massive traffic.

Meeting your Clients’ Expectations with Performance Testing

When you get a client on board for building a custom software application, they expect a certain level of outcome and quality from the final product. Delivering the application without testing it thoroughly would be a grave injustice to your client.

Performance testing allows you to let your client know that the application is robust enough to cater to their needs and has been tailored according to their requirements.

Here are some of the most important ways in which performance testing for software helps you meet (and exceed!) your clients’ expectations:

1. Ensuring Steady and Fast Loading Speed

Over time, the patience and attention span of people have reduced significantly. If you are developing an app for your client, it is always important to ensure high and steady loading speed for all its pages.

Performance testing allows you to assess the loading speed of the application you build and
make necessary amends to refrain from making any compromises. Moreover, increasing the loading speed of an application would allow users with limited bandwidth and connection to easily access the software as well, thereby giving your client the traction they are looking for.

2. Boosting Business Revenue

When you conduct effective performance testing for your client’s application, it helps you improve its overall quality and the experience offered to the end-users. When an application performs well, it reaches out to more users, helping your client boost their business revenue.

3. Resolving Glitches Beforehand

The last thing you would want is for your client to discover glitches in their software after it has been launched and rolled out in the market. This would not only spoil your relationship with your client but also hamper the reputation of your client in the market.

To prevent any of this from happening, performance testing allows you to identify and resolve glitches in the software before it is launched. When the experts test the functionality of the application, they can make multiple alterations to resolve issues before it is too late. With efficient performance testing, you can make sure that the software being rolled out is free from all glitches.

4. Keeping the Security Intact

In the age of information, the security and privacy of data are of the utmost importance for every business. Clients today often prioritize the complete security of the software application while working with the developers.

Performance testing helps you test the security of the software when it confronts a massive workload and sees where it gets vulnerable. This allows the developers to make necessary changes keeping the security protocols in mind, making the platform more robust and secure than ever. With performance testing, you can make sure that the software would not compromise the security and privacy of data stored therein when confronted with a greater workload.

5. Verifying Claims

Whenever a business builds a software application, it claims to provide certain specific features, tools, or experiences to the end-users. Once the application is built, performance testing helps you in verifying these claims made by your clients to the users.

Especially in the case of applications that provide services to customers, businesses often guarantee a certain degree of speed and user experience as the customers anticipate the launch. Effective performance testing helps you ensure that all of these claims have been fulfilled by your client once the application is developed.

6. Enhancing Scalability

Businesses often prefer developing software applications that can be scaled as per their needs and circumstances. With performance testing, you can identify the possible vulnerabilities within an application that may restrict scalability. By looking at the underlying problem, you can provide robust resolutions that allow you to scale your software well and make it responsive to upgrades.

7. Ensuring Consistent Results

Users prefer engaging with applications that are dependable and provide consistent results over time. Launching an application without testing its performance would always leave scope for error where the app may become inconsistent without any warning.

Performance testing helps you make sure that the application you developed for your client is dependable and capable of offering consistent results to the end-users at different workloads. It also helps you analyze if the recent changes or frequent releases of an application are hampering its behavior.

8. Checking the Tech Stack

Over time, while the process of developing software has become easier, applications themselves have become more complex. Developers today use multiple technology stacks while building software applications. Once the app is developed, you need to ensure that the technology stack in your application delivers the desired output.

Performance testing helps you identify the weak links in your tech stack and make the necessary amends before the application is ready to get rolled out.

9. Tackling Database and API Issues

A software application can get your client the desired traction and output only if it is technically sound and robust. To ensure the seamless performance of your application, you need to source the data well and look into the functioning of the Application Program Interface (API) used in the software.

With performance testing, you can identify the issues and inconsistencies within the database and API of your application. This allows you to ensure the fast, scalable, and powerful performance of your software application, getting your client the traction they are looking for.

10. Building a Relationship of Trust

Finally, conducting thorough performance testing allows you to build a relationship of trust with the clients. Some of the biggest companies in the world prefer working with software developers who leave no stone unturned to bring out the best possible performance from their software applications.

The Final Word

Performance testing is too important a technique for developers to ignore while building custom applications for their clients. It helps you meet all your clients’ requirements and give them a little extra to help them create their niche in the market with their software.