In any business area, software applications have become famous. Nevertheless, these online and smartphone apps should be eventually checked employing various product testing techniques before these devices are introduced to people. Testing processes, integration checks, unit testing, approval tests, and performance testing are the most common testing practices. Research activities are interrelated to evaluate the defects and verify the software’s conduct, performance, and reliability. Following the initial unit testing, system integration testing is carried out, including testing system components and code units. The automation integration testing process becomes a vital requirement for organizations before deciding the transition into device testing and other testing methods.

What is Integration Testing?

System integration testing is one of the agile software testing approaches in which specific elements or code units are evaluated to verify interfaces with multiple software framework modules. These device components are either considered in one group or iteratively structured in this process. Device integration monitoring is typically used to verify the whole software system’s output in general. This testing method is specifically intended for extending the framework and verifying module integration with the other classes. It is conducted to confirm if all units are working as defined. So, this was the explanation of what is Integration testing.

How to do Integration Testing?

It is critical in software testing that all device components are merged into the various application modules. Each of the software components is evaluated on a machine, but there are important opportunities for bugs in the modules, including the establishment of integration tests. In particular, device integration checks validate the relationships between modules successfully and verify the software requirements at a low and high level as laid out in a software requirement manual.

Some of the main situations on how to do Integration Testing:

1. If new changes to application specifications are made, integration testing will be required as minor additions that cannot be unit tested
2. An integration test is necessary for explaining the developer’s reasoning towards the requirements
3. In communicating with APIs and third-party software, integration testing becomes essential for evaluating these connections and knowing the result.

What are the Benefits Businesses get with Integration Testing?

Most test cases will be written at the early stage with integration testing and support for running on all builds. These tests tackle exceptional bugs and validate the performance, functionality, and trust of the integrated modules. Such advantages include:

1. Simplifies integration between numerous technology modules
2. Expands code coverage and strengthens test efficiency
3. Identifies and fixes challenges at the system level, such as integration bugs, defective databases.
4. Guarantees the communication with other tools and APIs from third parties
5. Early bug detection and resolution
6. Increases average quality and implementation cycles

Also Read: 5 Top Integration Testing Tools

Types of Integration Testing

Types of Integration testing are categorized into multiple research methods; some of them are:

1. Big Bang Integration Testing

Nearly all systems or main units are integrated into this method for executing integration experiments in one attempt. This strategy is generally implemented where teams include full apps.

2. Incremental Testing

A minimum of two logically connected components is tested throughout this research methodology. The associated modules are then condensed to measure and function correctly. It continues until the modules have been tried and tested.

3. Top-Down Integration Testing

In this research strategy, the teams first test high-level units and then try lower-level companies progressively.

4. Bottom-Up Integration Testing

The test begins with the lower units of the application and then gradually rises, i.e., assessments are done from the control pieces’ bottom.

5. Hybrid/Sandwich Integration Testing

This method is also called dual integration as it is a mixture of up and down approaches. This strategy overcomes many additional drawbacks and helps to accomplish the methods’ advantages across three separate layers: the primary target layer, the lower layer, and the higher layer.

Steps to Perform Integration Testing

Here is the procedure is given to perform integration testing:

1. Prepare and identify unit interfaces for a successful integration test plan

The teams must formulate a test plan approach before planning integration tests. It allows them to flow experiments. At the same time, developers must define test cases and test data and record them.

2. Identify the main priority evaluation modules

It is necessary to research the architectural design of the application in this phase. It helps to define the important modules which require priority automation integration testing and to understand other modules.

3. Examine the interfaces

During the creation of test cases and test scenarios, information on integration test models should be obtained. Interfaces must be reconciled, i.e., as data from one unit X passes to another unit Y, a simple indicator should be provided that the data was shipped from unit X.

4. Prove the evaluation criteria for integration

Test requirements should be planned for the processing of integration tests for each program unit. Once the requirements are specified, they must be reported to be included during integration testing.

5. Choose and run the experiments on an automation tool

Choose an automation testing platform for integration testing, while test scripts and test conditions are prepared. Run the test cases and announce the re-test defects if any defects have been detected.

6. Re-test to Validate for Completeness of Integration tests

Re-testing of test cases with reported defects. This move must be followed up to the end of integration tests, and all requirements met.

Also Read: How To Use Docker In Integration Testing?

What are The Important Integration Testing Tools?

Various integration testing tools are given below:

1. Protractor

It is an open-source automation application called an E2E test framework. Applications based on Angular and AngularJS are chosen for Protractor. 

2. Rational Integration Tester

This framework offers a scripting-free environment that helps prevent system integration testing bugs within the agile, iterative development phase. It provides various features, such as code-free and re-usable stubs, and reduces the chance of error.

3. TESSY

The integration and unit checking of embedded software is performed through this software testing tool. Teams can conveniently define test cases using their Classification Tree Editor (CTE).

4. LDRA

This Liverpool Data Research Associates (LDRA) platform helps optimize code analyses for integration checking and security requirements verification. TBrun and LDRAunit are the most common integration tools.

Conclusion

Companies effectively guarantee to check using acceptable software testing methods before the applications are released. System integration testing is one of the most important software testing techniques in the life cycle of software development. This approach integrates software components and checks them to construct a complete solution and guarantees quality, stability, and performance-ensured software.

Also Read: Integration Testing Explained: 5 Top Integration Testing Tools