Software Testing and Quality Assurance

Theory and Practice

Chapter 7
System Integration Testing

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 1
 Outline of the Chapter
• The Concept of Integration Testing
• Different Types of Interfaces
• Different Types of Interface Errors
• Granularity of System Integration Testing
• System Integration Techniques: Incremental, Top-down, Bottom-up,
and Sandwich and Big-bang
• Software and Hardware Integration
• Hardware Design Verification Tests
• Hardware and Software Compatibility Matrix
• Test Plan for System Integration
• Off-the-self Component Integration
• Off-the-shelf Component Testing
• Built-in Testing
Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 2
 The Concept of Integration Testing
• A software module is a self-contained element of a system
• Modules are individually tested commonly known as unit testing
• Next major task is to put the modules, i.e., pieces together to
construct the complete system
• Construction of a working system from the pieces is not a
straightforward task because of numerous interface errors
• The objective of system integration testing (SIT) is to build a
“working” version of the system
– Putting modules together in an incremental manner
– Ensuring that the additional modules work as expected without disturbing the
functionalities of the modules already put together
• Integration testing is said to be complete when
– The system is fully integrated together
– All the test cases have been executed
– All the severe and moderated defects found have been fixed
Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 3
 The Concept of Integration Testing
The major advantages of conducting SIT are as follows:

• Defects are detected early

• It is easier to fix defects detected earlier

• We get earlier feedback on the health and acceptability of the

individual modules and on the overall system

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 4
 Different Types of Interfaces
Three common paradigms for interfacing modules:

• Procedure call interface

• Shared memory interface

• Message passing interface

The problem arises when we “put modules together” because of interface errors

Interface errors
Interface errors are those that are associated with structures existing outside the
local environment of a module, but which the module uses

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 5
 Different Types of Interface Errors
• Construction
• Inadequate error processing

• Inadequate functionality
• Additions to error processing

• Location of functionality
• Inadequate interface support

• Changes in functionality
• Initialization/value errors

• Added functionality
• Validation od data constraints

• Misuse of interface
• Timing/performance problems

• Misunderstanding of interface
• Coordination changes

• Data structure alteration

• Hardware/software interfaces

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 6
 Granularity of System Integration Testing
System Integration testing is performed at different levels of granularity
• Intra-system testing
– This form of testing constitutes low-level integration testing with the objective
of combining the modules together to build a cohesive system
– For example, in a client–server-based system both the client and the server are
distinct entities running at different locations. Before the interactions of clients
with a server are tested, it is essential to individually construct the client and the
server systems from their respective sets of modules in an incremental fashion.
• Inter-system testing
– It is a high-level testing phase which requires interfacing independently tested
systems
• Pairwise testing
– In pairwise integration, only two interconnected systems in an overall system
are tested at a time
– The purpose of pairwise testing is to ensure that two systems under
consideration can function together, assuming that the other systems within the
overall environment behave as expected
Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 7
 System Integration Techniques
Common approaches to perform system integration testing
• Incremental
• Top-down
• Bottom-up
• Sandwich
• Big-bang

Pre-requisite
A module must be available to be integrated
A module is said to available for combining with other modules when the
module’s check-in request form is ready

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 8
 Incremental
• Constructing a build is a process by which individual modules are
integrated to form am interim software image.
– A software image provides a packaged and self-contained representation of a
software system, facilitating deployment, management, and scalability in
various computing environments
• The final build is a candidate for system testing
• Constructing a software image involves the following activities
– Gathering the latest unit tested, authorized versions of modules
– Compiling the source code of those modules
– Checking in the compiled code to the repository
– Linking the compiled modules into subassemblies
– Verifying that the subassemblies are correct
– Exercising version control

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 9
 Incremental
• Integration testing is conducted in an incremental manner as a series
of test cycles
• In each test cycle, a few more modules are integrated with an
existing and tested build to generated larger builds
• The complete system is built, cycle by cycle until the whole system
is operational for system-level testing.
• The number of SIT cycles and the total integration time are
determined by the following parameters:
– Number of modules in the system
– Relative complexity of the module (cyclomatic complexity)
– Relative complexity of the interfaces between the modules
– Number of modules needed to be clustered together in each test cycle
– Whether the modules to be integrated have boon adequately tested before
– Turnaround time for each test-debug-fix cycle

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 10
 Incremental
• A release note containing the following information accompanies a
build.
– What has changed since the last build?
– What outstanding defects have been fixed?
– What are the outstanding defects in the build?
– What new modules, or features, have been added?
– What existing modules, or features, have been enhanced, modified, or deleted?
– Are there any areas where unknown changes may have occurred?
• A test strategy is created for each new build and the following issues
are addressed while planning a test strategy
– What test cases need to be selected from the SIT test plan?
– What previously failed test cases should now be re-executed in order to test the
fixes in the new build?
– How to determine the scope of a partial regression tests?
– What are the estimated time, resource deman, and cost to test this build?

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 11
 Top-down
• Module A has been decomposed into modules
B, C, and D
• Modules B, D, E, F, and G are terminal
modules
• First integrate modules A and B using stubs
C` and D` (represented by grey boxes)
• Next stub D` has been replaced with its actual
instance D
Figure 7.1: A module hierarchy with • Two kinds of tests are performed:
three levels and seven modules – Test the interface between A and D
– Regression tests to look for interface defects
between A and B in the presence of module D

Figure 7.2: Top-down integration of

Figure 7.3: Top-down integration of
modules A and B
modules A, B and D
Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 12
 Top-down
• Stub C` has been replaced with the
actual module C, and new stubs E`,
F`, and G`
• Perform tests as follows:
– first, test the interface between A and
C;
– second, test the combined modules A,
B, and D in the presence of C Figure 7.5: Top-down integration of
• The rest of the process depicted in the modules A, B, C, D and E
right hand side figures.

Figure 7.6: Top-down integration of

Figure 7.4: Top-down integration of modules A, B, C, D, E and F
modules A, B, D and C
Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 13
 Top-down
Advantages
• The SIT engineers continually observe system-level functions as the
integration process continue
• Isolation of interface errors becomes easier because of the
incremental nature of the top-down integration
• Test cases designed to test the integration of a module M are reused
during the regression tests performed after integrating other modules

Disadvantages
• It may not be possible to observe meaningful system functions
because of an absence of lower level modules and the presence of
stubs.
• Test case selection and stub design become increasingly difficult
when stubs lie far away from the top-level module.

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 14
 Bottom-up
• We design a test driver to integrate
lowest-level modules E, F, and G
• Return values generated by one module
is likely to be used in another module
• The test driver mimics module C to
integrate E, F, and G in a limited way.
• The test driver is replaced with actual Figure 7.8: Bottom-up integration of
module , i.e., C. module E, F, and G
• A new test driver is used
• At this moment, more modules such as
B and D are integrated
• The new test driver mimics the
behavior of module A
• Finally, the test driver is replaced with
module A and further test are performed

Figure 7.9: Bottom-up integration of

module B, C, and D with F, F, and G
Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 15
 Bottom-up
Advantages
• One designs the behavior of a test driver by simplifying the behavior
of the actual module
• If the low-level modules and their combined functions are often
invoked by other modules, then it is more useful to test them first so
that meaningful effective integration of other modules can be done

Disadvantages
• Discovery of major faults are detected towards the end of the
integration process, because major design decision are embodied in
the top-level modules
• Test engineers can not observe system-level functions from a partly
integrated system. In fact, they can not observe system-level
functions until the top-level test driver is in place

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 16
 Big-bang and Sandwich
Big-bang Approach
• First all the modules are individually tested
• Next all those modules are put together to construct the entire
system, components of a system into a single unit and tests them as a
whole
Sandwich Approach
• In this approach a system is integrated using a mix of top-down,
bottom-up, and big-bang approaches
• A hierarchical system is viewed as consisting of three layers
• The bottom-up approach is applied to integrate the modules in the
bottom-layer
• The top layer modules are integrated by using top-down approach
• The middle layer is integrated by using the big-bang approach after
the top and the bottom layers have been integrated
Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 17
 Software and Hardware Integration
• Integration is often done in an iterative manner

• A software image with a minimal number of core modules is loaded

on a prototype hardware

• A small number of tests are performed to ensure that all the desired
software modules are present in the build

• Next, additional tests are run to verify the essential functionalities

• The process of assembling the build, loading on the target hardware,

and testing the build continues until the entire product has been
integrated

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 18
 Hardware Design Verification Tests
A hardware engineering process consists of four phases
• Planning and specification
• Design, prototype implementation, and testing
• Integration with the software system
• Manufacturing, distribution and field service

A hardware Design Verification Test (DVT) plan is prepared and

executed by the hardware group before the integration with software
system

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 19
 Hardware Design Verification Tests
The main hardware tests are aa follows:
• Diagnostic Test
• Electrostatic Discharge Test
• Electromagnetic Emission Test
• Electrical Test
• Thermal Test
• Environment Test
• Equipment Handling and Packaging Test
• Acoustic Test
• Safety Test
• Reliability Test

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 20
 Hardware and Software Compatibility Matrix
• H/W and s/w compatibility information is maintained in the form of
a compatibility matrix
• It documents different revisions of the h/w and s/w that will be used
for official release of the product
• An Engineering Change Order (ECO) is a formal document that
describes a change to the hardware and software
• An ECO document includes the hardware software compatible
matrix
• It is distributed to the operation, customer support and sales teams of
the organization

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 21
 Test Plan for System Integration

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 22
 Test Plan for System Integration

Table 7.4: A framework for system integration entry criteria

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 23
 Test Plan for System Integration

Table 7.5: A framework for system integration exit criteria

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 24
 Off-the-self Component Integration
Organization occasionally purchase off-the-self (OTS) components
from vendors and integrate them with their own components

Useful set of components that assists in integrating actual components:

• Wrapper: It is a piece of code that one builds to isolate the

underlying components from other components of the system
• Glue: A glue component provides the functionality to combine
different components
• Tailoring: Components tailoring refers to the ability to enhance the
functionality of a component
– Tailoring is done by adding some elements to a component to enrich it with a
functionality not provided by the vendor
– Tailoring does not involve modifying the source code of the component

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 25
 Built-in Testing
• Testability is incorporated into software components

• Testing and maintenance can be self-contained

– Normal mode
• The built-in test capabilities are transparent to the component user
• The component does not differ from other non-built-in testing enabled
components
– Maintenance mode
• The component user can test the component with the help of its built-in
testing features
• The component user can invoke the respective methods of the
component, which execute the test, evaluate autonomously its results,
and output the test summary

Software Testing and QA Theory and Practice (Chapter 7: System Integration Testing) © Naik & Tripathy 26