Abstract
In order to deliver quality assured software and avoid potential costs caused by unstable software, testing is essential in software life cycle. Load testing is one of the testing types with high importance. It is usually accompanied by performance monitoring of the hosting environment. The purpose of this paper is to present related solutions to both load and stress testing issues in different fields and emerging paradigms, and to evaluate them in order to identify their advantages and their shortcomings. Looking at the areas focused by existing researchers, gaps and untouched zones of different systems relatively to load testing can be discovered. This investigation will especially allow promoting future research in the context of load testing of web service compositions, considered as an arising concept in service-oriented architecture (SOA).