[TIP] Difference between functional test and integration test

[Martin Pool]

On 10 February 2013 14:43, John Wong <gokoproject at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am posting the same exact question on Stackexchange:
> http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/186523/difference-between-functional-test-and-integration-test
> It's more nicely formatted. I have posted on here before on using mock so
> I figure I can try here as well (and people on this mailinglist are usually
> really really experienced programmers!)
>
> That being said, I really have a hard time differentiating functional test
> from integration test.
>
> Sidenote: I understand people use different terms in different
> organization (ex. at Google they use small, medium and large instead of
> unittest, and integration test), but for most organizations, they enjoy
> using "standard terms".
>

I think Hakan Deryal's
answer<http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/186542/7398> on
that question is good: integration tests emphasize testing an entire
assembled fairly-realistic system.

It is a matter of degree and as you say the terminology is quite
inconsistent so it will always be a bit subjective exactly how to
differentiate them.

One way to look at is to ask what kind of statement the test is intended to
check:

"I'm calling the external system as intended" - more like a unit test

"Calling the external system in the way I do has the expected effect, and I
haven't misunderstood how to use it" - more like an integration test.

Some would say that "functional" is not a counterpoint to integration
tests, but rather "functional" is contrasted with eg performance tests.




-- 
Martin
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