What is system integration testing?
What exactly is system integration testing? Do we need to prepare a separate integration test plan?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register, you'll receive targeted emails designed to keep you informed of the most relevant information on Agile development, application security, testing & QA, software requirements, and more.

    Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchSoftwareQuality.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchSoftwareQuality.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

System integration testing is testing performed when two systems, generally presumed stable themselves, are integrated with one another. For example, this could be when an inventory management system is integrated with a sales accounting system. Each system feeds into the other.

The goal of systems integration testing is to ensure that the data crossing the boundary between systems is received, stored and used appropriately by the receiving system. Until integration begins, testing of the isolated systems is done on mocked or replayed data and not on "live" data. Integration testing is the final step before customer acceptance testing.

Testing of these systems takes on an end-to-end view. This testing isn't focused on minute details, but more on generating real-life data or, better yet, scenarios. Replaying a day's store transactions, for example, is a great way to test the integration of a sales accounting and an inventory management system.

This was first published in March 2009