What Is Benchmark Testing: A Complete Guide With Best Practices

OVERVIEW

Benchmark testing is the process of verifying and validating a software application’s performance against standardized criteria called benchmarks. These criteria include throughput, error rate, and server response time. Benchmark testing allows you to check how well the application performs by establishing a baseline for comparison under different testing conditions.

Setting a baseline allows developers to easily measure whether a software application meets the pre-determined standards, both functionally and non-functionally. It is essential because it helps ensure that the application meets quality standards. In software development, functional and non-functional tests are performed for every application. Benchmark testing assesses the application's stability and scalability, ensuring no quality issues.

In this tutorial, we will thoroughly discuss benchmark testing and highlight its type, importance, phases, and process to perform, as well as its best practices, relevance in quality assurance, and more.

What is Benchmark Testing?

Benchmark testing is a systematic approach that evaluates the software application's performance, efficiency, and capability by comparing the specific systems, hardware, software, or components against a set standard.

What is a benchmark in this test, exactly?

It is a standard metric or reference point for comparing software applications or services to measure their quality. It establishes a standardized criterion for evaluating the quality of software applications.

Using the benchmarks, the developers and testers perform the test to check whether the developed software applications meet the user's requirements. They compare the application's previous, current, and future updates against a predefined reference. The development team, stakeholders, or user specification documents can establish the benchmark.

Some key points on benchmark testing:

• It addresses software, hardware, and network performance, primarily focusing on a software application's present and future releases to uphold high-quality standards.
• It evaluates a repeatable set of quantifiable results as a reference point for comparing applications or services.
• It is not confined to software testing alone; it also includes hardware testing, considered one of the most crucial tasks in the business world.
• It is essential for benchmark testing to be effective in that it is both repeatable and quantifiable. Therefore, setting a benchmark to estimate software performance in each iteration is crucial.
• It involves a collaborative effort between application developers and Database Administrators (DBAs).
• It helps in understanding how the database manager responds to different conditions.

Objective of Benchmark Testing

Benchmark testing is integrated into the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) because it allows the identification of strengths and weaknesses in software applications, highlighting areas for enhancement. However, it is not limited to this. It also has several different objectives, which are mentioned below.

• It helps consider the performance during the development phase, testing new software applications to identify areas for improvement before market release.
• It evaluates the performance of existing software applications, identifying optimization opportunities for improved functionality.
• It verifies the application's performance after hardware upgrades.
• It ensures that the software application meets the minimum response time, user load specifications, and other performance requirements specified in the Service-Level Agreement (SLA).
• It can be used as a comprehensive quality assurance component, ensuring software applications meet users' performance expectations.
• It determines the threshold at which a software application will be fully exhausted by adding a new load.

Why is Benchmark Testing Important?

Benchmark testing is an essential type of testing during the software development process. Here are some highlighted significance.

• It evaluates every performance aspect of the software application, ensuring that performance remains consistent and meets the required standards as the user base expands.
• It verifies that your software application adheres to established best practices and specific standards applicable to all users.
• It checks the performance of a web-based application in comparison to its competitors.
• It allows for evaluating third-party service providers before finalizing a contracting decision.
• It measures the quality of the software applications by identifying performance bottlenecks, bugs, and issues.
• It allows us to define areas for improvement and optimization based on the test results from benchmark testing.
• It allows validation of the performance of the software applications before deploying system upgrades and updates.
• It analyzes resource utilization like CPU, memory, and disk usage, which gives information on system efficiency.

To understand it better, let's take a conceptual example of performing benchmark testing for a Database Management System (DBMS).

Scenario: Suppose you are developing a software application that depends on database interaction. Here, with the team, you will set a benchmark for DBMS, which might include criteria like speed of data retrieval, efficiency of complex scenarios, and ability to handle a specific volume of simultaneous database transactions.

Criteria: You have a defined benchmark that DBMS should recover at least 1000 records in less than one second and execute complex queries with multiple joins within two seconds.

Based on the defined criteria, you will test the DBMS in various scenarios, such as a high volume of simultaneous read and write operations, and measure its performance against the established criteria. During this test, you can quickly identify performance-related issues, scalability issues, or any other error. Using this information, you can improve the database management system for better performance and efficiency.

In the following section, let us learn the various advantages benchmark testing offers.

Advantages of Benchmark testing

It offers several advantages, including providing comparison standards to help identify performance bottlenecks and make informed decisions about system improvements. Below are some of these advantages.

• It assists in recognizing and resolving performance issues proactively, guaranteeing a positive and consistent experience for software application users.
• It targets specific areas within the application that contribute to performance slowdowns, ensuring optimal functionality.
• It evaluates how effectively the software application manages the current workload and provides insight into its growth potential, helping proactively plan for future demands.
• It evaluates explicitly how well a software application performs during peak internet traffic, ensuring it meets specified standards and continually enhances quality.
• In addition to performance evaluation, it validates the software's functionality.

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In the following section, we will examine the applications where benchmarking is highly used in the software testing industry.

Benchmark Testing − Scope of Application

Benchmark testing is very popular in the software industry because it has many uses. It is used for:

• Evaluating browser compatibility
• Analyzing broken links
• Verifying browser compatibility
• Appraising link popularity
• Considering load time and the overall accessibility of the application.

What is Baseline Testing?

Baseline testing is the process of evaluating a system's performance or component's characteristics. It serves as a reference point for future comparisons. During this testing, application performance metrics are carefully recorded and documented. These metrics provide a snapshot of the system's performance under defined conditions, such as workload, user interactions, and environmental factors.

The following section will examine the difference between benchmark and baseline testing.

Differences between Benchmark & Baseline Testing

Though benchmark and baseline testing may appear quite similar, the following points will clarify the distinction between the two.

Real-World Applications of Benchmark Testing

In real-world scenarios, benchmark testing is widely used as it gives insight into the performance metric and functionality of the software application. By knowing some of the real-world applications of this test, you can quickly analyze where benchmark testing exists in software testing. Here are some examples:

• Software development: It monitors how a software application performs under different test environments and scenarios. Developers use benchmark results to compare various algorithms, coding techniques, and libraries to determine which works best for their applications.
• Hardware procurement: It enables comparing hardware functionality, performance, and features of products from different vendors or manufacturers. By considering performance metrics, it helps evaluate hardware's cost-effectiveness.
• System optimization: It helps to understand how different hardware components, such as the CPU, memory, and storage devices, work together. It also helps identify the limits of the scalability of software applications that can run effectively on the hardware.

In the section below, we will learn the various key metrics and parameters of benchmarking and how these key metrics help us gain detailed insights into software application performance.

Key Metrics and Parameters of Benchmark Testing

The key metrics and parameters are crucial for benchmarking. It gives insight into the performance of the software application. It makes the comparison easy under different conditions:

Some performance metrics are mentioned below.

• Throughput: It measures the quantity of information a system can process within a specific timeframe.
• Latency: It is a metric in network performance that evaluates the time required to transfer data from one point to another.
• Response time: It calculates the time taken to respond to input. It includes the total wait time (queue) and service time (request fulfillment).

Some system parameters are mentioned below.

• CPU utilization: It indicates the workload managed by individual processor cores to execute various computer programs.
• Memory usage: It measures the amount of RAM the software application uses in working conditions.
• Disk I/O: It involves all read, write, and input/output operations associated with a physical disc, measured in KB/s. It monitors the active disc I/O time or the speed data moves from the hard drive to the RAM.

In the following section, we will learn about the various types of benchmarking that are helpful for multiple purposes.

Types of Benchmark Testing

Evaluating different performance metrics is essential to test complex software applications to ensure their quality thoroughly. Therefore, more than a single benchmark test is required, as software applications have their own set of metrics to test the software.

Below are the different types of benchmark testing; you can choose the appropriate one and run one or more as per your requirements.

• System: This evaluates the overall system's performance, covering hardware, network, and software elements.
• Application: Utilize this to measure the performance of specific applications, including databases and web applications.
• Hardware: This type of benchmark test mainly focuses on verifying the system's hardware components, which include processors, graphic cards, and memory.
• Network: This benchmark test evaluates the performance of network systems, including the Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN).
• Storage: This testing type evaluates the performance of storage systems, such as hard drives, SSDs, and Storage Area Networks (SANs).

Components of Benchmark Testing

It has several components that are essential in executing the test process. Here are three major components:

• Workload specifications: This process involves identifying the type and frequency of requests submitted to the System Under Test (SUT).

  Outlined below are the considerations when defining workload conditions:

• Hardware configuration that includes database, elastic, coordinating, and cluster nodes.
• Network configuration and security.
• Operating system version.
• Patch levels.
• Servers.
• Libraries and software packages, and others.
• Specification of metrics: This process involves testers and developers highlighting the critical elements that must be measured, such as Download Speed, Application code, and Sand QL queries (ascertaining the faster option between Left Join and Correlated Query).
• Specification of measurements: It establishes a method for measuring the specified metrics or elements to determine the anticipated and suitable results values.

Before we delve into benchmarking, it's crucial to understand the prerequisites. It ensures we have all the necessary components or libraries to conduct benchmark testing successfully. Let's explore these prerequisites in the following section.

Prerequisites for Benchmark Testing

Before performing any test, specific prerequisites need to be considered. Here are some of those for benchmark testing:

• Ensure the availability of a qualified software test engineer with relevant experience.
• If not fixed, seek clarity on the preferred performance goals.
• Develop meaningful test cases.
• Select and utilize appropriate software testing tools.
• Whenever possible, replicate production scenarios.
• Finally, formulate a robust test plan.

Now that you have the prerequisite in the following section, we will learn how to create a test plan to start with benchmark testing.

Creating a Benchmark Test Plan

Before creating the test plan for benchmark testing, you have to follow these steps to have a robust testing process:

• Clarify the purpose of your testing and document your application's desired testing and verification.
• Identify the components to be tested, determining whether they fall under hardware/software/application categories.
• Document the specific metrics and the appropriate standards for evaluating components through your chosen benchmark testing type.
• After establishing the purpose, testing type, and metrics, choose any performance testing tools, opting for commercial or open-source tools based on your requirements.

When you have all set the test plan for testing, the next step comes to develop an actual test plan. You can create the test plan by following these simple processes:

• Determine the scale or bench at which the test will be executed. Define the workload, including the number of users, transactions, and other factors the software application can handle during the test.
• Define a method for collecting and addressing performance metrics like response time, throughput, latency, and resource utilization should be developed. Use the right tool to store and capture these measures during benchmark tests.
• Define the benchmark test's duration and specify the test process's starting and ending times in the test plan.
• Anticipate any barriers or challenges in the test process. Prepare a backup plan to address any unexpected issues, such as system crashes or test plan failures.
• Clearly define who can decide when the benchmark test ends. You can decide based on predefined criteria, such as achieving specific performance goals, encountering critical failures, or completing the planned testing duration.

In the section below, we will learn the various phases of benchmark testing.

Phases of Benchmark Testing

It consists of four crucial phases. These phases allow testers to plan, organize, and ensure that the results meet the client's expectations.

• Planning phase: This phase involves identifying and establishing a benchmark that includes the steps needed to determine benchmark criteria. The testing team identifies the best standards and requirements, setting the foundation for benchmark criteria.
• Analysis phase: This phase includes setting goals that the company decides after the benchmark is in place. Once the benchmark is set, the team analyzes the information gathered during test planning. It aims to identify the root cause of errors and find ways to enhance quality.

  After deciding on the desired appearance and features of the application, the next step is to implement these plans and develop the software accordingly.

• Integration phase: In this phase, the team shares the results with the development and database teams based on the analysis. After stakeholders and managers approve the suggestions from the planning and application phases, the team establishes functional goals for the next phase.

  Approval involves agreeing with the set benchmark (signing off on the final design and feature documents) and developing the application with these plans as the benchmark. Once approval is secured, an action plan is initiated to monitor and evaluate the final results after running benchmark tests.

• Action phase: This phase involves creating the test plan and documentation for benchmark testing. All actions decided during the integration phase are executed, and the relevant authority monitors progress. The entire process runs continuously until all set goals are achieved.

Now that we know the four phases, we will learn the process in detail in the next section.

Process of Performing Benchmark Testing

The following are the steps that must be followed when performing benchmark testing.

• Requirement gathering: First, you must follow all web application requirements. To this end, you can initiate reviews and analyze the needs and specifications of the web applications, helping identify essential features, functionality, and performance.
• Test planning: Prepare and update the test plan documents by defining the test scope, objective, entry, and existing criteria of benchmark testing.
• Test case preparation: Test cases and scenarios are created based on this phase's end-user requirements and test objectives. Furthermore, inputs, expected outputs, test data for each test case, testing techniques, and methodologies are identified.
• Establish a test environment: You can do this by configuring the hardware, software, and network components. This will mimic real-world conditions and better test the software application.
• Test data creation: Next, you must create test data showing the software applications' expected workload and scenario. The test data must be diverse, realistic, and address all the use cases.
• Test execution: You must execute the benchmark test according to the test plan created. It includes applying specific workloads, transactions, or scenarios to the application to evaluate its behavior and response under different conditions.
• Data collection: After running the benchmark test, you must collect data related to the application’s performance. Such data will include metrics like response time, throughput, error rate, etc.
• Comparison with benchmarks: After collecting performance metrics, the next step is to compare these results with established benchmarks or performance criteria. Benchmarks can be industry standards, previous performance baselines, or other predefined metrics representing acceptable or optimal performance levels.
• Monitoring the application: You must track the performance metrics during test execution, as this will provide real-time insight into the application's functionality.
• Documentation of result: While benchmark testing is running and data is being collected, each iteration of the benchmark test should be documented. Such documentation will include raw performance metrics, unexpected behavior, and other variations.
• Adjustments and iterations: In some cases, adjustments to the test environment or cases may be necessary during the execution phase. This flexibility allows for identifying and resolving issues that may arise during testing.
• Result summarization: Summarize the result and give any recommendations for improvement.

Factors Influencing Benchmark Testing

Numerous factors can significantly impact the outcomes of benchmark testing. It is crucial to consider the following key factors when conducting benchmark tests to ensure precise and meaningful results:

• System configuration: Memory quantity, processor type, speed, and storage capacity can collectively impact performance.
• Operating system and drivers: Updated drivers and an optimized operating system can enhance performance, while outdated or misconfigured drivers and operating systems may have a detrimental effect.
• Workload: Varied workloads impose distinct demands on the system, generating diverse results. Utilizing a representative workload that accurately mirrors the intended system use is crucial.
• Testing methodology: Check for the correct sequence of test scenarios, the test duration, and test parameters that can impact the test result.
• Environmental factors: Aspects like temperature and humidity can affect the performance of hardware components.

Key Considerations for Benchmark Testing

The following aspects should be considered to ensure successful benchmark testing.

• Ensuring consistency and control are crucial measures for performing benchmark testing.
• Comprehending the system architecture to formulate test criteria and test data.
• Evaluating the initial static data and adjusting it based on the number of users is essential.
• Verifying the presence of the 'Reset' functionality where needed and defining the per-second transaction rate (specifically addressing users' transactions against a database).
• Dividing the system elements according to their functionalities.
• Recognizing that each system possesses a distinct architecture and design, which must be acknowledged during benchmark testing.
• Ensuring all software components are in operational condition.
• Ensuring all software and hardware components align with the production environment requirements.
• Verifying the accuracy of the operating system and supporting drivers.
• Ensuring the test cases are consistent and proper control measures are utilized.
• Deleting the prefetch and temporary files system before initiating a benchmark.
• Ending all processes and applications running in the background.
• Checking for operating system updates and real-world configurations.

Interpreting Benchmark Test Results

Interpreting benchmark test results can be challenging and requires a comprehensive understanding of the tested system, the executed benchmark tests, and the resulting outcomes. Here are some ways to interpret benchmark test results:

• Look for the benchmark test's specific goal, including evaluating CPU performance, speed, and other factors.
• Compare the benchmark used in the test with similar components relevant to the use case, as benchmarks may focus on different aspects.
• Evaluate all the individual metrics is essential to understand the benchmark test results comprehensively.
• Review the benchmark test results, paying attention to the overall performance score and the outcomes of individual tests.
• Once the benchmark testing is completed, it is essential to use the results to provide specific recommendations for achieving the desired software quality outcomes.
• Note that some benchmarks may focus on synthetic testing tasks that don't reflect actual usage. Therefore, it's crucial to look for benchmarks that align with your intended applications or workload.

The challenge in benchmark testing is the complexity of interpreting results and deciding on actionable insight. Testers need help identifying performance and making better decisions based on the benchmark test results.

To overcome such a challenge, you can use various cloud-based solutions that offer a user-friendly platform for testers to validate the performance bottleneck and make informed decisions based on the benchmark test results.

One such platform is LambdaTest, an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that lets you run manual and automated tests at scale with more than 3000 real devices, browsers, and OS combinations. It allows you to run diverse tests through its robust real-device cloud infrastructure. It allows you to perform web application testing and provides a mobile device lab to conduct real device testing.

This platform offers detailed performance reports and metrics that are easy to interpret. It makes it easy for testers to quickly identify performance issues, track improvements over time, and make data-driven decisions to enhance software quality. Additionally, this platform allows a comprehensive browser and device coverage to ensure that benchmark tests resemble real-world user environments, enabling testers to achieve more accurate and meaningful results.

To learn more about this platform and its features, follow this detailed video tutorial and get valuable insights.

In addition, you can streamline the gathering and analysis of test execution data from multiple sources through LambdaTest's Test Observability feature. This platform offers a single dashboard where users can access real-time insights, enabling them to make informed decisions about their testing processes and improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Some key features:

Test Analytics: Unifies test execution data from various LambdaTest products for real-time insights, including:

• Test case health summary: This summary identifies inconsistencies in test execution, such as tests that sometimes pass and sometimes fail, indicating potential issues in their design or execution.
• Overall test summary: Provides an overview of the number of tests executed, categorized by status (e.g., pass, fail, skip).
• Distribution of tests across operating systems and devices: It helps detect potential OS or device compatibility problems.
• Performance trends over time: It identifies trends in pass/fail rates and potential improvements in the testing process.
• Detailed error information: It provides insights into errors encountered during testing.
• Resource usage insights: It offers insights into how your team uses LambdaTest resources.
• Error distribution analysis: It pinpoints the nature and distribution of errors across different test categories, enabling focused debugging efforts and quicker issue resolution.
• HyperExecute platform-specific data analysis: It analyzes data specific to the HyperExecute platform (cloud-based test execution).

It provides a comprehensive view of testing data, helping testers improve efficiency and effectiveness in their testing processes.

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Aspects of Good Benchmark Tests

A well-executed benchmark test is crucial in consistently and impartially evaluating the performance of various systems, devices, or software applications consistently and impartially. A benchmark test should exhibit several key characteristics for it to be effective.

• Ensure that the tests can be repeated reliably.
• Begin each iteration of a test in the same system state.
• Ensure that the benchmark is relevant and reflects real-world usage scenarios.
• Ensure that no other functions or applications unintentionally operate in the system during benchmark testing.
• Ensure that the hardware and software used for benchmark testing align with your production environment.
• Adhere to standardized industry methodologies for benchmark testing.
• Use clear metrics with easily interpretable scores to evaluate performance.

In the following section, we will look into the framework used to help perform benchmark testing.

Benchmark Testing Frameworks and Tools

Various benchmark testing frameworks and tools are available to assist in creating and performing benchmark tests. Some popular benchmark testing tools are:

• Apache JMeter: This open-source software testing tool performs load, performance, and benchmark testing efficiently.
• Gatling: Allows distributed testing, real-time reporting, and detailed results with this open-source load testing framework.
• Grinder: This open-source load-testing framework is versatile and can be used for benchmark tests on various systems, including web applications, databases, and other types.
• stress-ng: It is a Linux-based stress testing tool that allows benchmark tests on system components, such as CPU, memory, and I/O.
• Benchmark Framework 2.0: Developed by Alfresco, this framework executes highly scalable, Java-based load and benchmark tests.
• TechEmpower: An open-source framework that performs benchmark tasks, requiring the correct configuration of the test environment.
• 3DMark: A benchmarking tool compatible with Windows, Android, and iOS, 3DMark evaluates the performance of 3D graphics cards and the processing capabilities of the CPU. It is specifically designed for gaming systems.
• PassMark: A PC benchmark and software testing tool that evaluates system performance through CPU, memory, and disk performance tests.
• SmartMeter.io: A performance and load testing tool offering enterprise-level features with an interface similar to JMeter.
• NeoLoad: An automated performance testing tool that addresses API and end-to-end application testing.

Now that we have learned the tools and frameworks needed to start benchmarking tests, let's examine the challenges faced in the following section.

Challenges in Benchmark Testing

Apart from its advantages, benchmark testing also presents several challenges that you should be aware of when evaluating the performance of the software application; below are specific challenges mentioned.

• It is challenging to set a benchmark that can represent a real-world scenario.
• Due to the flexibility of the real-world workload, the standardized criteria for benchmark testing may not capture diverse usage patterns, often leading to inaccuracies in the test process.
• Benchmark tests include hardware and software configuration; any changes cause incorrect test benchmarks.
• To establish the proper test benchmark, one needs time, patience, and a complete understanding of the project. An incorrect reference can compromise the entire testing process.
• Software applications regularly require updates and new releases. Therefore, performing benchmark testing that aligns with their current updates is a continuous challenge.
• Choosing appropriate tools for benchmark testing is crucial, demanding adequate time, financial resources, and effort to ensure a suitable long-term selection.

Best Practices for Benchmark Testing

The following are some of the best practices of benchmark tests that can help address its challenges:

• Adopt an agile approach, using iterative testing throughout the development life cycle.
• Performance measurement of your application necessitates understanding your system's capacity, including planning for concurrent users, simultaneous requests, average user sessions, and server utilization during peak periods.
• Start testing as early as possible in the development process; avoid delaying and rushing Benchmark Testing as the project nears completion.
• Execute multiple benchmark tests to ensure consistent findings and determine metric averages.
• Since applications often involve multiple systems, such as databases, servers, and services, they test individual units separately and collectively.
• It is most effective in test environments closely resembling production systems.
• To evaluate software application performance accurately, it is crucial to run benchmark tests multiple times on various devices with different configurations.