What is Integration Test and Advantages of Integration Test for software project?

In this post, I will explain What is Integration Test and Advantages of Integration Test for a software project?  Integration Testing is the phase in software testing in which individual software modules are combined and tested as a group. It occurs after unit testing and before validation testing. Integration testing is also known as "integration and testing(I & T)". Integration Testing is black-box testing.

A typical software project consists of multiple software components, coded by different programmers. The purpose of integration testing is to ensure distinct components of the application still work in accordance with customer requirements.

Test cases are developed with the express purpose of exercising the interfaces between the components. This activity is carried out by the test team.

1. Integration testing tests the interfaces between components and the interactions between different parts of the system.

2. The components of the product are tested as a single group or organized in an iterative manner.

3. After integrating two different components together, specific integration test team carry out the integration testing.

Integration testing is considered complete when actual results and expected results are either in line or differences are explainable/acceptable based on client input. 

Most of the testing primarily rely on end to end testing. It's important and must to have an end to end testing. But at the same time, it’s important to have the Integration Test in software testing.

Advantage of the Integration Testing:

1. Integration testing starts at the very early stages of development and bugs are caught earlier rather than the later stage.

2. Confidence in the development cycle is high.

3. Easy to integrate with daily builds and easy to test in a development environment

4. Tests run faster compared to end tests.

5. Integration tests catch system-level issues, such as a broken database schema, mistaken cache integration.

6. Code Coverage is higher and easy to track.

7. Integration Tests are more reliable and easy to isolate the failures.

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What is Unit Test and Advantages of Unit Test for software project?

In this post, I will explain What is the Unit Test and Advantages of Unit Test for a software project? Unit Test is a fast test of a small unit. Unit Testing is a white box testing. What is a unit depends on the developer. It can be any small, testable piece of code, such as a method or a class. 

Unit tests are low-level tests. They force a small piece of application to perform some action and they check the final result. This action is very simple and the results are independent of other pieces of the application. Failure in a unit test shows without a doubt which part of the code doesn’t work.

Advantages of Unit Test:

1. Executing unit tests doesn’t require the application to be running. And it can be done even before the whole application is built

2. Unit testing leads to fewer bugs in the software

3. Developers feel more confident in deploying code that is covered by unit tests

4. Programmers following the Test-Driven Development (TDD) process claim that unit testing helps them achieve their goals faster, solving problems with less code and better code architecture

5. With unit tests you can also improve parallel work, you don’t need to wait for the whole project to be done to test just a piece of that

IT projects are constantly changed by client’s, for clients it can be just a small change but for developers, it can have huge consequences. A good engineer will always test his work. But a top engineer will check if he didn’t break anything else. If you have unit tests in place, the previous features can be tested almost instantly.

A lack of unit testing makes it difficult to predict the final testing time. The developer may estimate how much time he will spend on building a new feature, but no one knows how many iterations will be needed for testing during development, or how many conflicts with previous features will be created.

Which project requires a Unit Test?

If you want to know if your project requires unit tests, think about your project and check if any of the below factors fit for your project:

1. Your project will grow in time

2. Your features are complex

3. Bugs in your project can cost you a lot of money

4. Predictable time to market is crucial for your project

If your project matches any of the above, you will benefit from unit tests. The more factors fit, the more unit testing will help you.

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