Testing the software system or software application as a whole is referred to as System Testing of the software. System testing of the application is done on complete application software to evaluate software’s overall compliance with the business / functional / enduser requirements. The system testing comes under black box software testing. So, the knowledge of internal design or structure or code is not required for this type of software testing.
In system testing a software test professional aims to detect defects or bugs both within the interfaces and also within the software as a whole. However, the during integration testing of the application or software, the software test professional aims to detect the bugs / defects between the individual units that are integrated together.
During system testing, the focus is on the software design, behavior and even the believed expectations of the customer. So, we can also refer the system testing phase of software testing as investigatory testing phase of the software development life cycle.
At what stage of SDLC the System Testing comes into picture:
After the integration of all components of the software being developed, the whole software system is rigorously tested to ensure that it meets the specified business, functional & nonfunctional requirements. System Testing is build on the unit testing and integration testing levels. Generally, a separate and dedicated team is responsible for system testing. And, system testing is performed on stagging server.
Why system testing is required:
It is the first level of software testing where the software / application is tested as a whole.
It is done to verify and validate the technical, business, functional and nonfunctional requirements of the software. It also includes the verification & validation of software application architecture.
System testing is done on stagging environment that closely resembles the production environment where the final software will be deployed.
Entry Criteria for System Testing:
Unit Testing must be completed
Integration Testing must be completed
Complete software system should be developed
A software testing environment that closely resembling the production environment must be available (stagging environment).
System Testing in seven steps:
Creation of System Test Plan
Creation of system test cases
Selection / creation of test data for system testing
Software Test Automation of execution of automated test cases (if required)
Execution of test cases
Bug fixing and regression testing
Repeat the software test cycle (if required on multiple environments)
