Definition:                                

            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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box_testing -         

As a rule, System testing takes, as its input, all of the "integrated" software components that have successfully passed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integration_testing - System testing is actually done to the entire system against the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_requirements - - System Requirement Specification (SRS). Moreover, the System testing is 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. It is also intended to test up to and beyond the bounds defined in the software/hardware requirements specifications.

One could view System testing as the final destructive testing phase before http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_testing - System testing should be performed by testers who are trained to plan, execute, and report on application and system code. They should be aware of scenarios that might not occur to the end user, like testing for null, negative, and format inconsistent values. A tester should be able to repeat the steps that caused an error.

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,