Integration testing software testing

The typical software project comprises different software modules, which coded by various programmers. The ultimate objective of this kind of testing is exposing and finding different defects within the interactions between such software modules as they are integrated.

The integration testing is known to check the data communication among such modules. You are sure to reap a lot of benefits as you opt for integration testing. First, it assures that different integrated modules work properly, catering to the needs. The integration tester begins testing with the availability of the modules which need to be tested. It is known to diagnose different errors related to the specific interface present between different modules.

It is useful to the modules in interacting with APIs and different third-party tools. Hence, it is considered to be more efficient. It enhances the test coverage, thereby improving the test reliability.

Though every software module is unit tested, different defects exist for different reasons. The module gets designed by the individual software developer, who has a unique programming logic and understanding, which is different from other programmers. The integration testing has become the need of the hour as it helps in verifying and validating the software modules, thereby working in unity.

During the module development time, there are chances that there is a change in the needs of the clients. Such new requirements are not unit testing. Or we can say that we will be adding the modules from bottom to the top and check the data flow in the same order. In the bottom-up method, we will ensure that the modules we are adding are the parent of the previous one as we can see in the below image:.

In this approach, both Top-Down and Bottom-Up approaches are combined for testing. In this process, top-level modules are tested with lower level modules and lower level modules tested with high-level modules simultaneously. There is less possibility of occurrence of defect because each module interface is tested. We will go for this method, when the data flow is very complex and when it is difficult to find who is a parent and who is a child. And in such case, we will create the data in any module bang on all other existing modules and check if the data is present.

Hence, it is also known as the Big bang method. In this approach, testing is done via integration of all modules at once. It is convenient for small software systems, if used for large software systems identification of defects is difficult. Since this testing can be done after completion of all modules due to that testing team has less time for execution of this process so that internally linked interfaces and high-risk critical modules can be missed easily. Let us see examples for our better understanding of the non-incremental integrating testing or big bang method:.

In the below example, the development team develops the application and sends it to the CEO of the testing team. Then the CEO will log in to the application and generate the username and password and send a mail to the manager. After that, the CEO will tell them to start testing the application.

Then the manager manages the username and the password and produces a username and password and sends it to the test leads. And the test leads will send it to the test engineers for further testing purposes.

This order from the CEO to the test engineer is top-down incremental integrating testing. In the same way, when the test engineers are done with testing, they send a report to the test leads , who then submit a report to the manager , and the manager will send a report to the CEO.

This process is known as Bottom-up incremental integration testing as we can see in the below image:. The below example demonstrates a home page of Gmail's Inbox , where we click on the Inbox link, and we are moved to the inbox page. Here we have to do non- incremental integration testing because there is no parent and child concept. The stub is a dummy module that receives the data and creates lots of probable data, but it performs like a real module. When a data is sent from module P to Stub Q, it receives the data without confirming and validating it, and produce the estimated outcome for the given data.

The function of a driver is used to verify the data from P and sends it to stub and also checks the expected data from the stub and sends it to P. The driver is one that sets up the test environments and also takes care of the communication, evaluates results, and sends the reports. We never use the stub and driver in the testing process. In White box testing , bottom-up integration testing is ideal because writing drivers is accessible.

And in black box testing , no preference is given to any testing as it depends on the application. JavaTpoint offers too many high quality services. Mail us on [email protected] , to get more information about given services. Please mail your requirement at [email protected] Duration: 1 week to 2 week. Software Testing. Manual Testing Automation Testing. Functional Testing Non-Functional Testing. White Box vs. Software Testing Interview.

Next Topic System Testing. Reinforcement Learning. R Programming. React Native. Change Language. Related Articles. Introduction of Software Engineering. Software Requirements. Software Testing and Debugging. Table of Contents. Improve Article. Save Article. Like Article. Integration testing is one of the agile methodologies of software testing where individual components or units of code are tested to validate interactions among different software system modules.

In this process, these system components are either tested as a single group or organized iteratively. Typically, system integration testing is taken up to validate the performance of the entire software system as a whole. The main purpose of this testing method is to expand the process and validate the integration of the modules with other groups.

It is performed to verify if all the units operate in accordance with their specifications defined. In Software testing, it is important that every system component gets integrated with the different application modules. Though each of the software modules is unit tested, there are critical chances for the modules to have defects, and this calls for the need for Integration testing to come into place.

Significantly, system integration testing is taken up to effectively verify the various interactions between modules and also verifies the low-level and high-level software requirements as given in the software requirements specifications document. The need for Integration testing can be understood from the points listed below:. Integration testing is a simple extension of unit testing. With integration testing, most of the test cases are written at the early stage and thus helps to perform execution on every build.

This testing process tackles the bugs related to exception handling and validates the performance, functionality, and reliability of the integrated modules. It is classified into different testing approaches , some of them are:. In this approach, almost all of the units or major units are combined together to perform integration testing in one attempt. Usually, this method is practised when teams have entire software in their bundle. In this testing approach, a minimum of two modules that are logically related is tested.

Then, the related modules are summed up to perform testing and achieve proper functioning. This process is continued until the modules are addressed and tested. In this testing approach, the teams test the top-level units first and then perform step-by-step testing of lower-level units. In this testing approach, the testing starts from the lower units of the application and then gradually moves up, i.