Studies show that users of mobile and/or web apps can detect differences in response times of 250 milliseconds and that the slower your app is, the less likely they are to keep using it. No one wants to deal with a slow-performing or unreliable website when making purchases, taking online tests, paying bills, or simply browsing for information. The internet puts real meaning to the old saying “easy come, easy go”. It is easier to lose users than gain them and performance is a key factor.
Will abandon a site that takes >3 seconds to load
Expect a page to load in <2 seconds
Say fast load time speed is important to site loyalty
The thing about “performance” is that measuring it is not simple nor straightforward. The rapid rise in mobile smartphone features, functions, and usage combined with the nascent growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), has resulted in complex systems that impact performance in complicated ways. In some cases, sluggish response times may arise due to exposure to latencies that exist outside the bounds of the local applications. In other cases, it may simply be a result of large numbers of simultaneous users.
In the profession of software QA & Testing, performance testing is no longer a simple checkpoint before going live. It is a comprehensive and structured process to evaluate both mobile and web applications to ensure they deliver a great user experience under complex, challenging, and dynamic conditions. Load testing and stress testing of mobile and web applications should be an integral part of any launch plan.
XBOSoft has standardized JMeter because it is highly regarded, widely accepted, and supports all the functions required for structured testing. It has been around since 1998, possesses a very active development community, and since it is written in Java, it is considered cross-platform. While JMeter itself possesses useful functionality, a large number of plugins are available to greatly extend its range and capabilities, from test functions to output reports. Additionally, it can test against a variety of interfaces including HTTP, REST APIs, and others.
There are many benefits offered by open-source software beyond a low price. There are developers all over the world constantly refining it. Issues with security and quality surface and are resolved quickly. They can be tailored in flexible ways as required by your business and offer key advantages not gained using proprietary solutions:
Configuring Apache JMeter can be tricky. Because it is not a native application, a Java environment must be configured prior to installation. Plugins will need to be downloaded and installed. To handle a large numbers of simultaneous virtual users, it will also need to be set up in a primary/replica configuration.
The main challenge is not getting it operational, it’s prioritizing what will be tested and then analyzing the results to determine actionable improvements. Testing everything isn’t possible which makes creating a test plan a great place to start. Prioritizing tests based on analytics, usage, customer complaints, sensitivity to the function under test (e.g., financial transactions), and risks are all critical parameters that require a high degree of expertise to achieve.
XBO has experience addressing all of the biggest challenges whether load testing or stress testing. Over the years we’ve created a custom service that can be configured locally on your private servers, or across dozens of geographically distributed cloud-based JMeter installations, simultaneously driving hundreds of thousands of users, with the perfect testing model for your project.
Take advantage of XBOSoft’s Apache JMeter performance testing expertise:
Do the subtle differences between load testing and stress testing pose challenges for your JMeter implementation? Download our JMeter white paper for tips on building a performance test plan and our simple guidelines on how to run it more effectively.
To find out how XBOSoft’s performance testing services can find bottlenecks before your customers do, contact us today.
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