Volume Testing
Printed From: One Stop Testing
Category: Software Testing @ OneStopTesting
Forum Name: Beginners @ OneStopTesting
Forum Discription: New to the Club...!!! Don't Worry, We are here for you...!!! Learn the very basics of Software Testing and other pertinent Informations.
URL: http://forum.onestoptesting.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=2726
Printed Date: 20Jul2025 at 9:12am
Topic: Volume Testing
Posted By: tanushree
Subject: Volume Testing
Date Posted: 08Oct2007 at 1:15am
Volume Testing What
Testing where the system is subjected to large volumes of data.
At first glance it might appear that volume testing should be fairly
high up on the V model, especially if we take the above definition.
Certainly it comes under non-functional requirements testing and
Performance testing. In my view Volume testing can (and should) be used
in component testing. This would be closely correlated with the code,
so might at this level be connected to Dynamic Analysis. Volume testing
will also be undertaken (normally) as part of the User Acceptance test.
Stress testing is closely related, as it seeks to find out how the
software will behave beyondits specified limits.
Why
1) To find faults
2) Give credible information about the state of the component, on which business decisions can be taken.
As regards faults that should be found through volume testing are
those, where the behaviour of the software deviates from that expected
for a specified volume of data. Thus a bank system will be tested for
faults at much larger volumes of data, than that of small retailer
software. A fault which is only manifested on a table with a million
records will be of no concern to the retail software, but will be
picked up by the bank testers.
Credible information about how the software will behave is essential.
During the dot com boom many websites went live without knowing, what
the effect would be if the back end database grew exponentially. Of
course many suffered crashes as a result. Why test at the component
level? This is because we can then see how the code behaves, and
confirm that the component will not be a bottle neck and slow down the
whole system. (Alternatively, use too many system resources.)
Who
As volume testing can be
introduced almost anywhere, from component testing to user acceptance
testing, the range of people who can undertake it is similarly large.
Developers through to customers and end-users can do it. The testing
may be outsourced to a testing lab, which specialises in performance
testing.
Where
Depends on which phase, but would usually be done at the developers site.
When
All through the development lifecycle.
How
Volume testing needs two things. Firstly clear expected outcomes of how the
software is to behave for a given level of data. Secondly, data, and lots of
it. The expected behaviour at various levels, should be in the specification
documentation. Ideally this will say something like "the customers details
will be returned returned on the screen within 3 seconds, from a database with
1 million customer records." This gives the tester a benchmark to base a test case on.
The second requirement for data, needs either real life data, or simulated
data. Usually, real life data will come in the form of a customer database,
that has had private information, such as names and account numbers scrambled.
Alternatively records can be created from scratch using automated tools or by
adding rules directly on to the database, with SQL.
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