Test Pyramid and Test Types

Purpose

AIC uses a balanced test strategy. Fast unit tests provide design feedback. Integration tests prove infrastructure behaviour. Contract and acceptance tests protect external promises. UI tests are used selectively.

Test Pyramid

        Exploratory / manual assurance
       UI and end-to-end tests
      Contract and API tests
     Integration tests
    Unit tests

Test Types

Test type	Purpose	Speed	Owner
Unit	Verify isolated business logic	Fast	Developer
Component	Verify a module with limited dependencies	Fast/medium	Developer
Integration	Verify real infrastructure boundaries	Medium	Developer/team
Contract	Verify API/provider/consumer compatibility	Medium	Team
End-to-end	Verify critical journeys	Slow	Team/QA
Performance	Verify throughput, latency and resource use	Slow	Team
Security	Verify access, validation and common security issues	Variable	Team/security
Exploratory	Human investigation	Variable	QA/user/team

AIC Minimum Test Set

Every production project MUST have:

• unit tests for business rules

• integration tests for persistence and external adapters where practical

• API tests for web APIs

• security tests for authorization boundaries

• regression tests for fixed defects

• pipeline execution of tests

Test Smell Indicators

Investigate when:

• tests are flaky

• tests require manual setup

• tests depend on local machine state

• tests assert too many things

• tests break on harmless refactoring

• test data is unclear

• integration tests silently use production resources

Pipeline Split

A typical pipeline separates:

• build validation tests on every PR

• full integration tests on merge

• nightly performance/security checks where appropriate

• release acceptance tests before deployment