Often we blame delays and failures in software projects on missed deadlines, unclear requirements and poor communication. While these are certainly factors to point to when determining the cause of delays, one reason we rarely see it written about is the lack of integration between systems.
Modern applications don’t exist as a single, unified system. They’re made up of a number of services, APIs and third party integrations. All of which can work fine independently, but when combined can create unanticipated problems. Therefore, integration testing is necessary for developers and project managers alike.
Recognizing how the different types of integration testing have an impact on the project outcomes can help teams avoid costly delays and increase their confidence in delivering their respective projects.
The Hidden Risk in Modern Projects
At the point of view of project management, an area of major risk is the assumption that if we complete tasks, we will have a functioning system. Development teams may mark features accomplished, the unit tests have tested successfully, yet that is no assurance that these components will work together as intended.
Consider for example a Backend service will provide data in a format slightly different than what the Frontend service expects. A third-party API could potentially introduce latency causing a poor experience to users. An Authentication service could be configured differently between environments.
These issues typically do not surface until the later stages of the project life cycle; sometimes they may come to light just before going live with the system, therefore making it extremely costly and disruptive to remedy.
Integration Testing as a Risk Management Tool
Integration testing has a primary function of determining how well the various parts of a single application work together. For project managers, this is more than just a technical activity – it is also a type of risk management.
Project teams can include integration testing as part of their overall development process in order to:
- Identify cross-system issues earlier in the developing life cycle.
- Reduce the number of unpleasant surprises at the time of release.
- Increase the level of confidence in the stability of the finished product.
- Decrease the amount of rework and/or time delays caused by integration-related issues.
This proactive approach is well aligned with the project management objectives of delivering on-schedule, within-budget and to an expected level of quality.
Impact on Project Timelines
Integration challenges that arise too far along in the project development cycle leads to a project suffering from resources not being able to be coordinated for fast resolution. As an example, if a bug is to be corrected across two separate services, it will typically involve:
- Coordinating between multiple teams
- Updating of multiple code bases
- Retest of dependent features
This results in a bottleneck for projects, especially when teams are under timelines to complete their respective efforts.
By having integration testing performed sooner, teams can identify and fix integration issues much earlier and in an incremental manner than they can later in the project cycle, resulting in a smoother development cycle with fewer interruptions to project completion.
Improving Cross Team Collaboration
Collaboration amongst teams is inherently improved with integration testing. Team members are forced to agree on:
- API contracts
- Data formats
- Error handling
- Performance expectations
By aligning their expectations in these areas, there will be less room for miscommunication, allowing for teams to focus on a common goal.
From a project management perspective, this may produce improved communication between different teams and improve coordination throughout the development process to minimize the number of disputes arising during development.
The Role of Automation
Testing the integration of systems can be a long and inconstant process when done manually. Automation allows for quicker and more reliable methods of carrying out integration tests.
Automated integration tests can be included in the development workflow so that developers get continual feedback about the way the system behaves. This allows for issues to be indicated immediately when changes occur in the system.
Using automation also reduces the length of time required to release products because teams can verify stability without having to completely rely upon human validation of the system.
Balancing Testing Efforts
Achieving an appropriate equilibrium among various forms of testing is key. Integration Testing is one of the methods used in software testing that is essential, but not enough alone since it needs to also support other types of testing.
Testing Strategy includes:
- Unit Testing to verify each component
- Integration Testing to verify components working together
- End to End Testing for complete Workflows
For a Project Manager developing a Plan can utilize this information as an impact in how they will allocate Resources and set a realistic Schedule.
A Practical Perspective
Realistically, integration testing should not necessarily address each and every one of these situations but should instead be performed on areas that contain high levels of usage or risk.
Some examples of areas to focus include:
- Key user journeys,
- Core business logic,
- High volume APIs and,
- External service dependencies.
By concentrating on these specific areas the QA/test team can maximize the value of their integration testing without overburdening the QA/test team.
For additional technical information regarding the methods of conducting integration testing and how teams implement their integration testing, please refer to this resource.
A Shift in Project Thinking
Testing used to be viewed as just one of the last stages of a project before it was released. In today’s modern Agile-like development approaches, testing is now being done throughout the project’s lifecycle.
An example of this would be through integration testing, which has a large effect on the change in mindset that companies are using (testing is now integrated from the very beginning of a project rather than being done at the end).
As a project manager, this means you need to do the following:
- Plan for the testing activities to be conducted right from the beginning of the Project.
- » Provide time for validation as well as development.
- » Foster collaboration between teams.
This change will lead to more predictable results as well as a higher quality result.
Conclusion
Completing all steps involved in any project is necessary to complete the entire project, however successful completion of each component of a project does not guarantee success without integration testing having occurred.
Integration Tests provide a means to verify the interactions of the components within the entire project resulting in lower overall risk and higher reliability of the finished project. Teams can also leverage integration tests to quickly identify issues within the system prior to their becoming a large impediment to project success; thereby, allowing for better collaboration between team members and increased confidence in continuous progress made throughout the project.
As software systems become more integrated, more frequently, then the absence of conducting integration tests may result in delays, and/or rework, and/or unplanned failures. Therefore, as a part of their overall project strategy, teams should actively adopt the use of integration tests and realize that it will improve the overall chances of delivering a successful project.