Stress testing
From Free net encyclopedia
Stress testing is a form of testing that is used to determine the stability of a given system or entity. It involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, in order to observe the results.
In the 'IT industry', for example, a web server may be stress tested using scripts, bots, and various denial of service tools to observe the performance of a web site during peak loads. Stress testing is a subset of load testing. Also see testing, software testing, performance testing.
In a 'medical' context a Cardiac stress test is used most commonly to detect marked imbalances in blood flow to the heart muscle, sometimes other issues.
In the 'financial sector', instead of doing financial projection on a "best estimate" basis, a company may do stress testing where they look at how robust a financial instrument is in certain crashes. They may test the instrument under, for example, the following stresses:
- What happens if the market crashes by more than x% this year?
- What happens if interest rates go up by at least y%?
- What if half the instruments in the portfolio terminate their contacts in the 5th year?