Integration testing is any type of software testing that seeks to verify the interfaces between components against a software design. Software components may be integrated in an iterative way or all together (“big bang”). Normally the former is considered a better practice since it allows interface issues to be located more quickly and fixed.
Integration testing works to expose defects in the interfaces and interaction between integrated components (modules). Progressively larger groups of tested software components corresponding to elements of the architectural design are integrated and tested until the software works as a system.
Integration tests usually involve a lot of code, and produce traces that are larger than those produced by unit tests. This has an impact on the ease of localizing the fault when an integration test fails. To overcome this issue, it has been proposed to automatically cut the large tests in smaller pieces to improve fault localization.