"Software Testing is an important phase in developing software. Before software is aimed for release in the market, there a number of software tests performed. Software testing is classified into four important levels – Unit Testing, Integration Testing, System Testing, and Acceptance Testing. Each level is having its significant importance to find the bugs, validate the application behavior and its performance. Among these, integration is one of the essential practices, which every tester should have good knowledge as it is performed effectively almost in all software testing projects."

Software testing is the methodology that helps the testing teams to validate whether the developed product is meeting the requirements that are listed by the client or not. This process of testing includes several levels for examining the features, functionalities, performance, etc.

Integration testing is one of the software testing types where individual components are combined and tested to validate if they work effectively when they are combined. It is effectively practiced to validate the performance between modules. Modules can affect the functionality of software if they are not integrated properly, integration testing is an effective method to resolve these issues.

What is Integration Testing?

Integration testing is one of the software testing levels that is practiced to test the data transfer between two different unit testing modules. It is practiced after the first level, i.e. after Unit Testing. Once the created individuals units are tested, these modules are combined in order to start the next level of testing, i.e. integration testing. The main purpose of integration testing is to test and validate the interfaces between modules.

These modules are initially tested in isolation and then these unit tested modules are integrated one by one until all are integrated. This will help to check the behavior of these combined modules and validates if the developments are meeting the requirements or not. In addition to these, there are even more benefits that are achieved with integration testing.

Benefits of Integration Testing

• Assures to increase the test coverage and reliability of the tests
• Ensures that the modules interact well with API’s and other third-party tools
• Validates functionality and working of the integrated modules
• Identifies errors that arise due to the interface between different modules
• Helps the testing teams to test the modules once they get available

What are the types of Integration Testing?

Integration testing is classified into different types, they are:

Big Bang Approach: In this approach, all the modules are integrated in one go. Also, this approach helps in verifying the functionality or working of the system once they are integrated.

Top-Down Approach: In this approach, top-level units are tested first and then followed by lower-level units. It is a step by step process and followed when the top-down approach is performed.

Sandwich or Hybrid Approach: This integration testing type is a combination of Bottom-up and top-down approach.

6 Steps to perform Integration Testing

The steps that are essential to perform integration testing are:

• Need to prepare a test integration plan
• The next step is to decide the type of integration approach should be considered
• Based on the testing approach, design test cases, test scripts, and test scenarios
• Now, need to deploy the selected modules together for running integration tests
• The next step is to record test results and track the defects in the performed tests
• Until the required outcome is achieved for the complete system, it is required for the testing teams to repeat the steps from the first

Conclusion:

Integration testing is one of the crucial test practices in the software development lifecycle. It helps to validate whether the modules are functioning well or not. Through this method, a tester can easily sort out the bugs that can arise the problems among the interfaces before the product is released to the end-users. Also, when performing Integration Testing, it is important for the teams to have a proper Detail Design document with defined interactions of each module as this is an important requirement in software testing. Hence, to make this assured, the best way is to obtain integration testing services from a leading QA testing service provider.