Volume Testing

Volume Testing

Volume testing is a non-functional Performance Testing, where the software is subjected to a huge volume of data. It is also referred as flood testing.

Volume testing is done to analyze the system performance by increasing the volume of data in the database.

With the help of Volume testing, the impact on response time and system behavior can be studied when exposed to a high volume of data.

Benefits of Volume Testing

• By identifying load issues, a lot of money can be saved which otherwise will be spent on application maintenance.
• It helps in quicker start for scalability plans
• Early identification of bottlenecks
• It assures your system is now capable of real world usage

Why to do Volume Testing

The objective of performing the volume testing is to

• Check system performance with increasing volumes of data in the database
• To identify the problem that are likely to occur with large amount of data
• To figure out the point at which the stability of the system degrades
• Volume Testing will help to identify the capacity of the system or application - normal and heavy volume

What to Test in Volume Testing

In volume testing, following things need to be tested

• Test to check if there is any data loss
• Check the system's response time
• Check if the data is stored correctly or not
• Verify if the data is overwritten without any notification
• Check for warning and error messages, whether it comes at all for volume problems
• Check whether high volume data affects the speed of processing

Few checklist for successful Volume Testing

For successful Volume Testing, here are few checklist

• Does system have the necessary memory resources
• Does volume test executed on the whole system
• Is there any risk if data volume is greater than specified
• Is there any guarantee that no larger date volume will occur than specified

Volume Testing Vs Load Testing

Volume Testing	Load Testing
Volume testing is testing of an application with large number of data in database is possible	While in load testing, application is subjected to certain level of load to analyze the behavior of the application
Volume testing verifies if the system responds as expected for a certain volume of data. It may include increasing size of the file	Load testing checks the performance of the system when the user load is increased. It may include increasing number of the file

Challenges in Volume Testing

• Fragmentation of memory difficult to generate
• Dynamic generation of keys
• Relational Integrity of generated data