EDI Testing using BizTalk Integration Engine

To implement interoperability, enterprises are implementing integration gates that allow seamless data exchange within or between organizations. BizTalk integration engine is industry-leading integration software that helps organizations implement interoperability. BizTalk web services, including the BizTalk server and BizTalk EDI applications are being extensively discussed in the industry today.

Data exchange occurs in various formats. Communication formats common in healthcare organizations are Health Level 7 (HL7 files), Electronic Data Exchange (EDI files), custom format (txt/XML files) etc. according to the organization’sneed/requirement. Testing various format with the BizTalk Integration engine is the challenge. Moreover, different testing approaches require different testing formats. The current blog explores EDI testing using the BizTalk integration engine.

Typical challenges associated with this are:

1. Test data generation
2. Data integrity
3. Test environment availability

In order to have EDI Testing, two approaches are required to define testing strategies:

1. EDI Testing – format testing, data testing
2. Integration Testing – BizTalk integration engine implementation

1 EDI Data Testing

The testing Strategy should include below mentioned testing types:

2 Application Integration Testing – BizTalk

The Application Integration Testing strategy focuses on business requirements and end-to-end testing of the application/system involved in integration. Mentioned below are high-level points that Application Testing should cover:

1. A separate test environments functionality is provided by BizTalk. This allows QA to conduct testing separately in test environment.
2. Testing scenarios should focus on business rules validation and verification.
3. Data exchange between/among systems
4. Test scenarios across BAM (Business Activity Monitoring)
5. Test manually retrying orchestration for suspended messages
6. Test interruptible orchestration by sending interruption message
7. BPM scenarios focusing on data patterns – in our case EDI837I, P, & EDI 834
8. Security testing as per compliance rules laid out by HIPAA

To ensure 100% testing coverage, the recommended testing strategy build will be a “Hybrid” testing strategy – EDI Testing & Application Integration testing. An Application Integration testing strategy ensures that data exchange is proper and there is no impact to the business processing. On the other hand, EDI testing ensures that no data is lost & no junk/unwanted data is processed in data exchange.