Integration Testing

Integration Testing

Integration testing tests integration or interfaces between components, interactions to different parts of the system such as an operating system, file system and hardware or interfaces between systems. Integration testing is conducted by a specific integration tester or test team.

Big Bang integration testing

In Big Bang integration testing all the components or modules are integrated simultaneously, after which everything is tested as a whole. Big Bang testing has the advantage that everything is finished before integration testing starts. The major disadvantage is that in general it is time consuming and difficult to trace the cause of failures because of this late integration.

Incremental testing

Another extreme is that all programmers are integrated one by one, and a test is carried out after each step. The incremental approach has the advantage that the defects are found early in a smaller assembly when it is relatively easy to detect the cause. A disadvantage is that it can be time-consuming since stubs and drivers have to be developed and used in the test.