For any piece of software, hardware or even a website Load Testing is a vital component of the whole testing process. Bug testing, security testing, validation etc., are crucial too but if the component cannot handle a certain load then its failure is as serious as a failure in other sections. Today with the increased emphasis on networks Load Testing is essential to avoid crashes.

Load Testing in software can be done in many ways. For example, loading a large document repeatedly in Microsoft Word can tell you how the application can handle that task. You can discover how long it takes, if it slows down when loading repeatedly and how the application itself performs when the file is loaded. When developing software like this, Load Testing can help define its capabilities and limitations. This can then be communicated to the end user who can then decide whether the software is what they are looking for and whether it can take care of their requirements.

Load testing achieves benchmarks for the software. It can help developers compare the software they are writing with other similar software and in turn help them work out performance issues. It can also help them discover any bugs that arise due to heavy loads. This in turn helps customer support have better information at their fingertips. For example, they will know the issues that arise in a hundred user application where the 101^st user logs in.

This is just a broad look at the nature and the use of Load Testing. If you are beginning your life as a programmer, you should look into this subject more and understand the ways in which it can help you develop better software.