Top 4 Case Studies – Why missing out on Load Testing can be disastrous!

Each enterprise wants to beat its competitors by launching a powerful website. So it always explores options to optimize the look, feel, performance and scalability of the website. In addition to keeping the visitors engaged, the web application also needs to handle the constant fluctuations in the size of the website traffic. No enterprise can predict the exact number of users who will simultaneously access its website. Therefore, it must load test the website thoroughly to ensure that it is stable, scalable and high-performance. There are many instances when the website development projects failed only due to failure in load testing. These companies could have optimized the performance and scalability of the websites simply by conducting load testing.

Case Study I

Each person wants to participate in the famed New York City Marathon. The people who cannot participate in the hugely popular event keenly follow the runners’ progress during the race. So many websites try to attract users by allowing them to observe the runners’ progress live. A popular online sports portal tried to broadcast the race without implementing a proper load testing plan. The webmasters even ignored to check if the website and web server are effective in handling an enormous size of traffic at average page duration of one second. The absence of a comprehensive load testing strategy made them face one of the worst-case scenarios for the performance of their websites as well as the server load. The webmasters rectified their mistakes, and load tested the application immediately to optimize its performance during the next New York City Marathon.

Case Study II

The owner of a popular online gift card store underestimated the significance of load testing. The entrepreneur even did not realize whether the website and web server are optimized to handle heavy load during busy holiday season. The owner realized the problem only when the website failed to deliver maximum capacity during the peak holiday season. However, the webmaster realized the problem immediately, and hired renowned software testing service provider to identify the problem. After evaluating the system and environment thoroughly, the professionals found problem in a key section of the code that affects the scalability of the web store. The web store owner could have avoided the problem easily thorough load testing during the development and deployment of the website.

Case Study III

Some companies even do not realize the significance of load testing while migrating to a new and advanced system. The new system definitely offers loads on innovative features, functionalities and advantages to an enterprise. A large communication service company failed to avail the benefits of an advanced system as it failed to implement a detailed load testing plan. It invested a huge amount of funds in buying and installing the mission-critical systems. But the systems failed to support the company’s workflow along with a large number of users. The load testers hired by the enterprise identified problem with the hardware. The new system needs higher specification hardware to support a large number of users.

Case Study IV

A popular online action sports network updates its websites at regular intervals without conducting any load testing. New sections were being added to the website to complement promotion and sponsoring of various sports events. At the same time, the website also allows participants to register by submitting information. The participants also have option to create their sports profiles, monitor the activities of competitors, and communicate with promoters and sponsors. After some time, the sports network realized that the website is working at a much slower pace. It hired experienced load testers to determine the nature of the exact problem. The testers prepare a comprehensive load testing plan, and suggested the changes required to optimize the performance and scalability of the website.

Conclusion

In each of the above mentioned cases, websites owners concentrate more on the features and functionality of the website. The enterprises failed to determine if the website is effective in handling a large number of visitors at a time. Some websites like the marathon portal and gift card store need to handle heavy traffic only at certain times. But no webmaster can predict when the website will attract an increasing number of visitors. So most enterprises, nowadays, are integrating load testing as part of the website development strategy. The test-driven development strategy will further optimize the performance and scalability of a website in the long run. Also, the enterprise can avoid maintenances required to meet huge website traffic.

You can hire software testing companies from India after due validation of their skillsets, expertise and experience in handling huge load testing projects to avoid risks associated with letting an amateur do load testing for you.

We provide load testing services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified software testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.