System testing

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System testing is testing conducted on a complete, integrated system to evaluate the system's compliance with its specified requirements. System testing falls within the scope of Black box testing, and as such, should require no knowledge of the inner design of the code or logic. Template:Ref

Alpha testing and Beta testing are sub-categories of System testing.

As a rule, System testing takes, as its input, all of the "integrated" software components that have successfully passed Integration testing and also the software system itself integrated with any applicable hardware system(s). The purpose of Integration testing is to detect any inconsistencies between the software units that are integrated together called assemblages or between any of the assemblages and hardware. System testing is more of a limiting type of testing, where it seeks to detect both defects within the "inter-assemblages" and also the system as a whole.

Contents 1 Testing the whole system 2 Types of system tests 3 See also 4 References

Testing the whole system

Generally speaking, System testing is the first time that the entire system can be tested against the Functional Requirement Specification(s) (FRS) and/or the System Requirement Specification (SRS), these are the rules that describe the functionality that the vendor (the entity developing the software) and a customer have agreed upon. System testing tends to be more of an investigatory testing phase, where the focus is to have almost a destructive attitude and test not only the design, but also the behavior and even the believed expectations of the customer. System testing is intended to test up to and beyond the bounds defined in the software/hardware requirements specification(s).

One could view System testing as the final destructive testing phase before Acceptance testing.

Types of system tests

The following examples are different types of testing, that should be considered during System testing:

• Functional testing
• User interface testing
• Usability testing
• Compatibility testing
• Model based testing
• Error exit testing
• User help testing
• Security testing
• Capacity testing
• Performance testing
• Sanity testing
• Regression testing
• Reliability testing
• Recovery testing
• Installation testing
• Maintenance testing
• Accessibility testing (You may need to comply with American Disabilities Act, Section 508 of American Rehabilitation Act)

Although different testing organizations may prescribe different tests, within System testing, this list serves as a general framework, or foundation to begin with.

See also

• Test case
• Test plan
• Automated testing
• Quality control
• Software development process

References

• Black, Rex; (2002). Managing the Testing Process (2nd ed.). Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-471-22398-0
• Template:Note IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary: A Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries; IEEE; New York, NY.; 1990.