How To Do Integration Testing And What Are The Challenges In Integration Testing?

By Author: Alisha Henderson
Total Articles: 4
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Today almost every enterprise is digitalized and plans to launch quality software to meet their end-user requirements and also, to compete with the growing business market. This can be achieved when teams follow the best software testing methods that help in identifying and resolving the bugs at the earliest stage of development.

Integration testing is one such software testing method that is practiced after unit testing. With this testing methodology, teams test the functionality of individually tested modules by combining. This is a very important testing practice and teams should hold the right information about this method so that it becomes easier to overcome integration testing challenges.

What is Integration Testing?

Integration Testing is one of the software testing types that is performed by test engineers after unit testing. It is a kind of black-box testing, where the individually tested modules in the unit testing are combined to test the functionality. Integration testing can be performed with four different approaches such ...
... as big bang testing, top-down testing, bottom-up testing, and sandwich testing.

How to do integration testing?

Integration testing is performed after unit testing, i.e. once the individual units or modules are completely created and tested; and integration testing is practiced by combing the individually tested modules. In this method, the main objective is to identify and resolve the bugs between the interface and modules. Here are the steps to perform integration testing:

1. Plan for preparing an integration test plan
2. Validate and decide the integration testing approach
3. Based on the decided integration testing approach, design test cases, test scenarios, and test scripts
4. Now, deploy the selected modules together to perform integration testing
5. While performing integration testing, track the bugs and record the test results
6. Until the complete system is tested, repeat the above process

What are the challenges to overcome with integration testing?

Challenge to handle: While performing integration testing on different databases, environments, platforms, etc., it can be difficult for the teams to handle.

Challenge while integrating systems: This is one of the major challenges to overcome for the teams when they are required to integrate two legacy systems or new systems to the legacy system.

Challenge with systems compatibility: When systems are developed by different companies, then it may be challenging for the developed systems to have compatibility.

Challenge with too many paths: There is no specific pathway to perform integration testing, i.e. there are too many paths and permutations to test the integrated systems.

Conclusion:

Integration Testing is one of the important software testing types that is performed after unit testing. It is having great importance in validating the bugs and differences between the interface and the modules. The above mentioned are the ways to perform integration testing and the challenges that can arise while performing integration testing. However, to follow the best integration testing practices for your software, leverage integration testing services from next-gen QA services provider.

I work as a Senior Testing Specialist at TestingXperts. I handle day-to-day operations for all aspects of software testing. With over 7 years of professional experience I know how to build strong connection with the clients and testing capability. Testing plays an important role in the development of new IT programmes and many every day products, like cars and electronic goods.