How Integration Testing Works With CI And Devops

 

First, let us define our terms. Traditionally, integration testing occurred between unit testing and approval testing. That model fits nicely in a waterfall environment, where the growth phases are distinct and clear.

In agile surroundings, each bit of code a developer commits activates a build cycle. The delineation of stages becomes fuzzy, and everything seems to occur together. What does integration testing mean in this circumstance, and where does this fit in the procedure?

Best practices for continuous integration

Don't test business logic with integration testing

That's what unit tests are for. Confusing unit tests with integration evaluations can have dire consequences on the time that it takes to run your test suite. Unit tests are typically extremely fast, so they are run for each construct triggered from the CI atmosphere.

Since they aim basic correctness of code, running them often is essential to detect bugs early in business logic, so the programmer who introduced the insect can fix it immediately.

Maintain your testing suites different

Integration tests shouldn't be run together with unit tests. Developers working on specific business logic from the code needs to be able to run unit tests and receive near-immediate feedback to be certain that they haven't violated anything before committing code. 

If their test package takes too long and they cannot afford to wait for it to complete before committing code, they are likely to just quit running tests altogether (both the unit tests and integration tests). 

This also suggests that the unit tests are not properly maintained, which can finally get you into a situation where the effort necessary to bring your test suite current with the code causes real delays in shipping.

Log extensively

A device test has a specific scope and tests a very small bit of your application, so if it fails, it's usually quite simple to understand why and fix the problem. Integration tests are quite different. Their range could span several software modules, not to mention unique devices and hardware elements, in any operational flow. As a result, whenever an integration test fails, then it may be more complicated to identify the cause.

Do not stop at integration testing

Testing does not finish with how your applications modules operate with one another, or even the way they operate with other, third-party modules. It goes beyond. Your clients' user experience is dependent not only on your program, but also on how it's set up in your production environment and how it functions with those other peripheral elements.