Integration tests, what they are and what they are for

How to become an expert integration test analyst. Integration testing is the verification that multiple related components work together correctly. They can be both different classes and separate services.

Example: Suppose a bank has an Internet banking service and an automated banking system (ABS) that stores data about customer accounts and transactions.

When the user makes a payment, the Internet banking server sends a request to the ABS containing json, indicating the amount, the sender’s account and the recipient’s account.

Imagine that a developer needs to add a new field to the request body. Finalized the code, performed unit tests. The tester then verified that the new field appeared in the body of the request.

It remains to make sure that the receiving party (ABS) can process this data correctly. Such verification of work “at the crossroads” of services is an integration test.

How to become an expert integration test analyst

If you decide to become an expert integration test analyst and are preparing to go in for a junior QA interview, be prepared for the interviewer to care about 70% of your soft skills and only 30% – hard skills. .

What are integration tests and what are they for?

Soft skills are personal qualities that are difficult to train and assess. Personal qualities include, for example, resistance to stress, attentiveness, analytical mindset. Hard skills are professional skills that can be learned. Like knowledge of the Java programming language, drawing or knowing how to dance.

Personal Qualities Needed for a Novice Expert Analyst

Mandatory soft skills:

• Willingness to take responsibility: The main quality of an expert analyst is the ability to take responsibility for the quality of the product. Although an error in production is not only the fault of QA, but also of the developer, without a sense of responsibility for the error made, the expert analyst will have no incentive not to make similar errors in the future. Just as there will be no incentive to protect your product from accidental failures by covering code with automated tests or showing it off to colleagues on related teams.
• Ability to perform monotonous work: In software testing, there are both creative moments and routine operations. For many specialists, the most boring thing is regression tests. Fortunately, it lends itself to automation. But there is no escape from the rest of the quality control routine. If the same type of scenarios are not checked, sooner or later the defects will be missed.
• Ability to motivate yourself: No matter how professional an expert analyst is without the motivation to do his job well, he is doomed to skip defects in production. Everyone has their own reason. This can be a sports interest and a desire to earn a good reputation or, for example, a desire for professional growth.

Desirable Soft Skill:

• Sociability: Being an expert analyst is not only working with code and technical documentation, but also communicating with developers, customers and contractors. The fear of approaching a knowledge holder and asking a question will lead to gaps in product knowledge and, as a result, errors. It is possible to avoid verbal communication by chatting only, but this is not as effective as a personal conversation. As practice shows, correspondence is not only more time consuming, but more often leads to mutual misunderstandings. And even if communication isn’t your forte, don’t worry: This soft skill lends itself better to development than others.