Stress, Load, and Performance Testing in Quality Assurance

There is a lot of confusion about performance testing terminology. Before the responsibilities can be assigned, it is important to understand what are the differences between stress, load, performance, availability, and reliability testing. Depending on the project and risks involved, you may choose to limit your testing.

I will briefly outline terminology (definitions and examples) and discuss who should perform these tests, when, and how often. A brief mention of performance testing tools, but no detailed analysis of tools.