Scalability Testing

Scalability Testing

Scalability Testing is the ability of a network, system or a process to continue to function well, when changes are done in size or volume of the system to meet growing need. It is a type of non-functional testing.

Scalability testing ensures that an application can handle the projected increase in user traffic, data volume, transaction counts frequency, etc. It tests the system, processes and databases ability to meet a growing need. 

It is also referred as performance testing, as such it is focused on the behavior of the application, when deployed to a larger system or tested under excess load.

Why to do Scalability Testing

• Scalability testing lets you determine how your application scales with increasing workload.
• Determine the user limit for the Web application.
• Determine client-side degradation and end user experience under load.
• Determine server-side robustness and degradation.

What to test in Scalability Testing

Here are few Scalability Testing Attributes:

• Response Time
• Screen transition
• Throughput
• Time (Session time, reboot time, printing time, transaction time, task execution time)
• Performance measurement with number of users
• Request per seconds, Transaction per seconds, Hits per second
• Performance measurement with number of users
• Network Usage
• CPU / Memory Usage
• Web Server ( request and response per seconds)
• Performance measurement under load

Scalability testing Vs Load testing

Scalability Testing	Load Testing
It focusses on the performance of your websites, software, hardware and application at all the stages from minimum to maximum load.	Load testing focuses on testing an application under heavy loads, to determine at what point the system response time fails.