The ball shear test was investigated in terms of the effects of test parameters, i.e., shear height and shear speed, with an experimental and non-linear finite element analysis for evaluating the solder joint integrity of area array packages. Two representative Pb-free solder compositions were examined in this work: Sn-3.5Ag-0.75Cu and In-48Sn. The substrate was a common SMD type with solder bond pad openings of 460 $mu$m in diameter. The microstructural investigations were carried out using SEM, and the IMCs were identified with EDS. Shear tests were conducted with the two varying test parameters. It could be observed that increasing shear height, at fixed shear speed, has the effect of decreasing shear force for both Sn-3.5Ag-0.75Cu and In-48Sn solder joints, while the shear force increased with increasing shear speed at fixed shear height. Too high shear height could cause some undesirable effects on the test results such as unexpected high standard deviation values or shear tip sliding from the solder ball. The low shear height conditions were favorable for screening the type of brittle interfacial fractures or the degraded layers in the interfaces. The shear speed conditions were discussed with the stress analyses of the solder ball, and we cannot find any conspicuous finding which is related to optimum shear speed from the stress analyses.