Modern software systems are expected to deliver high performance under a variety of different workloads. In order to automatically verify whether a system operates correctly under specific load conditions, load testing has become a widely adopted technique. As software systems evolve, their load requirements—such as performance thresholds and usage patterns—also change, necessitating updates to load tests.

In this study, we investigate the maintenance of load testing scripts to better understand how load requirements evolve and how these changes are reflected in the tests themselves. Specifically, we analyze 35 open-source software (OSS) repositories that incorporate load testing, examining the frequency and nature of load test updates. Our analysis reveals that 45.7% of the studied projects do not update their load testing scripts after initial creation. However, a small subset of projects demonstrates extensive and ongoing maintenance of these scripts. Furthermore, we identified 20 distinct update types across 5 major categories of purposes for load testing script modifications. The most frequent update type is related to “Test Maintenance”, followed by “Test Scenario Modification.”