ETL Testing – Challenges

ETL testing is different from database testing or any other conventional testing. One may have to face different types of challenges while performing ETL testing. Here we listed a few common challenges −

• Data loss during the ETL process.

• Incorrect, incomplete or duplicate data.

• DW system contains historical data, so the data volume is too large and extremely complex to perform ETL testing in the target system.

• ETL testers are normally not provided with access to see job schedules in the ETL tool. They hardly have access to BI Reporting tools to see the final layout of reports and data inside the reports.

• Tough to generate and build test cases, as data volume is too high and complex.

• ETL testers normally don’t have an idea of end-user report requirements and business flow of the information.

• ETL testing involves various complex SQL concepts for data validation in the target system.

• Sometimes the testers are not provided with the source-to-target mapping information.

• Unstable testing environment delay the development and testing of a process.