5 Best Practices For Integration Testing

By Author: Alisha Henderson
Total Articles: 4
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Integration testing is one of the software development phases, where the individually tested modules are integrated and tested to check their functionality. This way of performing integration testing helps to find the functionality of every smallest module; and to achieve this, teams are required to adopt the best integration testing practices.

Most of the businesses in this modern world are effectively dependent on software. With the help of software, the teams are able to meet the needs of every user and promote their business growth. But, to maintain the business growth and positive customer experience, the teams need applications that can function well and meet the quality standards. Thus, there is a crucial need for integration testing so that every functionality will be continuously tested immediately after its development.

What is Integration Testing?

Integration testing is the methodology where software modules are integrated and tested as a group. With this integration testing practice, it becomes easier to identify the ...
... bugs that are raised when they are integrated.

Integration Testing Approaches

Integration testing is performed with different testing approaches, such as:

• Top-Down Approach – Used for simulating the behaviour of lower-level modules which are not integrated

• Bottom-up Approach – Modules at lower levels are tested with higher modules

• Big Bang Approach – All the components are integrated at once to perform testing

• Incremental Approach – Testing is performed by integrated more than two logically related modules

• Hybrid Integration – Combination of both top-down and bottom-up approach

All these methods help in integration modules and to find the defects in their functionality when they are tested as a group. But to make this testing practice more effective, the QA teams must adopt the best integration testing practices.

5 Best Practices for Integration testing

1. Ensure a proper detailed design document: To practice integration testing, one of the best practices is to have a proper detailed design document before starting testing. In this detailed design document, make sure to have interactions clearly defined between each unit/function.

2. Make use of the Software Configuration Management System: When planning to perform integration testing for a huge number of units, then prefer using a robust software configuration management system.

3. Perform Integration Testing after Unit Testing: Integration testing is effective when modules are tested immediately after their development, i.e. integration testing should be immediately after unit testing.

4. Automate as much as possible: When performing integration testing, automation becomes more crucial when practicing top-down and bottom-up approaches. Hence, automate as many test cases as possible.

5. Maintain Test Suites Separately: While practicing integration testing, it is essential for the teams to maintain testing suites separately so that it helps developers to perform unit tests during development even before the code is committed.

Conclusion:

Integration testing is one of the software development phases and this helps in identifying the functional defects when modules are integrated and tested. This way of practicing integration testing effectively helps in identifying the functional defects in the software at the earliest and helps in delivering quality-assured software.

The above-mentioned are the 5 best integration testing practices which can help teams to succeed while performing the test. Leverage integration testing services from independent QA testing teams to successfully practice the integration testing phase for your application.