Software Load Testing

Software programs can be load tested and can be particularly useful if they are network capable as most modern software packages are today. Testing is usually performed by the software company itself, rather than individual users or business users unless determining maximum capacity is critical to the enterprise. Ordinarily however, software will come with a set of benchmarks, stated maximum concurrent users and other statistics that are useful in determining suitability to purpose, often removing the need for individual testing.

With common software packages, like a word processor application or graphics editor application, these can be tested by repeated attempts to load a very large document. Will the document load successfully? Or will a suitable error message be displayed to confirm that the document is beyond the capacity of the application to handle it? Will the application simply crash with or without warning? In the case of other applications like a database that is setup to only handle 100 concurrent users, like some versions of Microsoft Access database application, what happens when the 101st user is attempting to connect to the database? Different software makers will handle the software limits in various ways and it can be helpful to be aware of these. In addition, web applications need to be written to display appropriate messages to the web user if maximum capacity has been reached.