How to Perform ETL Testing Using Informatica PowerCenter Tool

It’s universally understood that ETL testing is of utmost importance in any Business Intelligence (BI) application. To guarantee quality and acceptance in business operations, comprehensive testing of the BI application beforehand is imperative.

The main objective of ETL testing is to confirm that the Extraction, Transformation & Loading operates in line with business needs and performance benchmarks. 

Before we jump into ETL Testing with Informatica, understanding the fundamentals of ETL and Informatica itself is key.

What you will understand from this ETL tutorial:

• Basics of ETL, Informatica & ETL testing.
• Understanding ETL testing in relation to Informatica.
• Classifying ETL testing within Informatica.
• Showcasing test cases for Informatica ETL testing.
• Benefits of positioning Informatica as an ETL tool.
• Tips & Techniques for Informatica ETL testing.

In the realm of technology, Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) refers to a database procedure, mainly in the field of data warehousing, that executes:

• Data extraction – May acquire data from homogenous or non-homogenous data sources.
• Data Transformation – Adjusts the data to meet the needed format.
• Data Load – Moves and keeps the data in a final location meant for long-term utilization.

Informatica PowerCenter ETL Testing Tool:

Informatica PowerCenter is a potent ETL tool fabricated by Informatica Corporation. Acting as a consolidated enterprise data integration stage, it allows accessibility, discovery, and incorporation of data from manifold business players, irrespective of format and communicates it throughout the corporation at any pace. Informatica PowerCenter facilitates the creation of workflows to carry out all-inclusive ETL tasks.

Downloading and Setting Up Informatica PowerCenter:

To setup and configure Informatica PowerCenter 9.x, follow the comprehensive instructions given in the proceeding link:
=> Informatica PowerCenter 9 Configuration and Setup Guide

Understanding ETL testing unique to Informatica:

ETL testers regularly harbor specific inquiries about what to test within Informatica and how expansive the test coverage ought to be.

We’ll delve into how to carry out ETL testing specific to Informatica.

The pivotal areas to cover in Informatica ETL testing are:

• Testing the functionality of Informatica workflow and its constituents, encompassing all transformations employed in the basic mappings.
• Examining data completeness: confirming that the projected data is loaded into the target entirely without any truncation or data loss.
• Validating that data is loaded into the target within the projected time frames, gauging the workflow’s efficiency.
• Validating that the workflow averts loading of invalid or unnecessary data into the target.

Classification of ETL Testing within Informatica:

For better comprehension and ease of testing, ETL testing within Informatica can be segmented into two primary components:

#1) High-level testing
#2) Comprehensive testing

For high-level testing:

• Verification of the validity of Informatica workflow and associated entities.
• Confirmation of successful completion of the workflow operation.
• Validity check of the execution of all the mandatory sessions/tasks within the workflow.
• Confirming the data loaded into the preferred target directory with the anticipated filename (provided the workflow generates a file), and so forth.

In brief, high-level testing incorporates fundamental sanity checks.

In case of comprehensive testing in Informatica, a more stringent validation is carried out to confirm that the logic implemented within Informatica yields expected outcomes and meets performance needs:

• Validation of output data at the field level, ensuring each transformation functions correctly.
• Verification of the record count at each processing phase and eventually in the target.
• Rigorous monitoring of elements like source qualifier and target in the source/target statistics of the session.
• Gauging that the runtime of the Informatica workflow is in line with the projected run time.

To conclude, comprehensive testing encompasses stringent end-to-end validation of the Informatica workflow and the flow of data connected to it.

To provide an instance:

We carry a flat file containing product information. It includes product’s name, description, category, expiry date, and price.

The requirement is to extract individual product records from the file, create a unique product ID for each record, and populate it into the target database table. Additionally, we want to circumvent products that belong to category ‘C’ or possess an expiry date earlier than the current date.

Assume our flat file (source) appears somewhat like this:

(Take Note: Click on image for a better view)

As per the requirements outlined above, our database table (target) should reflect the following schema:

Table identifier: Tbl_Product

Perhaps we’ve developed an Informatica workflow to fulfill the requirements of our ETL process.

The underlying Informatica mapping will read data from the flat file, run it via a router transformation to reject rows based on category and expiry date, and tap a sequence generator to assign unique primary key values for the Prod_ID column in the Product Table.

Eventually, the records will populate into the Product table, which acts as the end goal for our Informatica mapping.

Here are some modeled test cases for the aforementioned scenario:

These test cases can be utilized as templates for the Informatica testing project and fine-tuned as per the functionality of your workflow.

#1) Test Case ID: T001

Test Case Purpose: Validate Workflow – [workflow_name]

Test Procedure:

• Proceed to workflow manager
• Open the workflow
• Select Workflows menu -> Click validate

Input Value/Test Data:

Sources and targets are accessible and connected
Sources: [every source instance name]
Mappings: [all mapping names]
Targets: [every target instance name]
Session: [all session names]

Expected Results

Related

Best Iptv Service Provider 2024 With 40k+ Channels And 150k+ VOD . Hurry Up