Spike Testing

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does Spike Testing Mean?

Spike testing is a type of performance testing that measures an application’s ability to respond to large changes in demand volume. It is a common part of routine testing for applications in order to spot weaknesses and potential problems in a production environment.

Techopedia Explains Spike Testing

The idea behind spike testing is fairly simple — by creating vast peaks and troughs in demand performance, engineers are better able to precisely measure how an app stands up.

Engineers typically look at the scope of spike testing and institute peaks on that basis. They then take the results and evaluate them to see how capable an application is, why it fails, where it succeeds, and where it can be improved. Spike testing belongs to that category of tests that help to anticipate theoretical scenarios later for implementation.

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

Advertisements