Interoperability Testing is a type of software testing that is performed to examine software’s interaction either with its components or other software. Interoperability testing checks functionality relationship between two software systems as per requirement of end users. Objectives of Interoperability Testing: The objective of Interoperability Testing is:
- To ensure end-to-end communication between two different software systems.
- To reduce the compatibility issue when data is transferred between two software.
- To provide uniform data type and data format between connected software systems.
Types of Interoperability Testing: There are five types of Interoperability Testing:
- Data type Interoperability Testing: It focuses on the data type of the data that is being transferred. The data type of sent and received data should be same so that there is no inconsistency. If the data sent is a character (suppose ‘a’), then data received at the receiver end should also be a character (i.e. ‘a’).
- Semantic Interoperability Testing: It focuses on the algorithm used in data transfer. It checks the data semantic that is involved in the data transfer. Algorithm used in data transfer should be reliable.
- Physical Interoperability Testing: It checks the connecting devises used to connect the two software systems. Basically it checks the ports and data cables used in connection. Generally the USB port also affects the data transfer rate hence in order to increase the data transfer rate 3.0 USB port is used.
- Protocol Interoperability Testing: It focuses on the protocol used in data transfer between two connected software systems. It checks whether the protocol used provides the efficient security to the data or not. The checksum used in protocol enables to transfer the data without any error.
- Data format Interoperability Testing: It checks the format of the sent data and the received data. The format of the data sent and the data received should be same. If the data sent by sender is in binary form (0 and 1) then the data received at the receiver end should also be in binary form(i.e. 0 and 1).
Interoperability Testing Process: Following steps are involved in the Interoperability Testing process:
- Test Environment Setup: In the first step, the environment is set up for testing. Without environment testing can’t be performed.
- Create Test Case: Test cases are generated to check the connection behavior. Different types of test case are generated so that the testing can be performed in an efficient way.
- Test Case Execution: After the creation of the test case, test cases are executed in order to perform the testing process.
- Test Result Analysis: After the execution of test case, test result ins analyzed whether the defects that were detected are resolved or not.
- Retest: After the analysis of the test result, if still the defects are found then the test is performed again and the whole process is repeated again.
Advantages of Interoperability Testing:
- It helps in establishment of a error less connection between two software systems.
- It ensures uniform data type data transfer between two software systems.
- It ensures uniform data format while transformation.
- It gives semantic format in transformation.
Disadvantages of Interoperability Testing:
- There are inadequate requirements in interoperability testing.
- It needs accurate measurement.
- It increases network complexity.
- It increases inadequate requirements.
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