What is System Testing? (Definition, Types, Examples)

In software testing, what is system testing?

System testing entails testing the whole system. All of the modules/components are linked together to see whether the system performs as planned. After Integration Testing, System Testing is carried out. This is crucial for producing high-quality output.

Example of System Testing

An automobile is not built as a whole by a car manufacturer. Each component of the automobile, such as the seats, steering, mirror, brake, cable, engine, car structure, and wheels, is made independently.

After each item is manufactured, it is tested separately to see whether it functions as intended. This is known as unit testing.

Now, when each element is integrated with another part, the completed combination is tested to see whether the assembly has had any side effects on the functioning of each component and if both components are operating together as intended, which is referred to as integration testing.

When all of the pieces are put together and the automobile seems to be ready, it is not.

The entire car must be checked for various aspects as defined by the requirements, such as whether the car can be driven smoothly, if the breaks, gears, and other functionality are working properly, if the car does not show any signs of fatigue after being driven for 2500 miles continuously, if the color of the car is widely accepted and liked, and if the car can be driven on any type of road, including smooth and rough, sloppy and straight, and so on. This entire testing effort is known as System Testing, and

The example performed as anticipated, and the customer was satisfied with the amount of effort necessary for the system test.

System Testing – Approach

• It is carried out after the Integration Testing has been finished.

• It is mostly a sort of Black-box testing. With the use of a specification document, this testing assesses the system’s functionality from the perspective of the user. It does not need any internal system expertise, such as code design or structure.

• It includes both functional and non-functional application/product domains.

What is the Purpose of System Testing?

• Completing a full test cycle is critical, and ST is the stage when this is accomplished.

• System Testing is carried out in a comparable setting to that of production, allowing stakeholders to obtain a solid picture of the user’s response.

• It reduces the number of troubleshooting and support calls made following a deployment.

• At this level of the STLC, both the Application Architecture and the Business Requirements are tested.

System testing is critical and plays a key part in providing a high-quality product to the consumer.

How Do You Run a System Test?

It’s essentially a subset of software testing, and the Test Plan should always include room for it.

To test the system as a whole, requirements and expectations must be clear, and the tester must also understand how the program is used in real-timereal time.

In addition, the system’s functionality, performance, security, recoverability, and installability are all affected by the most commonly used third-party tools, OS versions, flavors, and architecture.

As a result, having a clear image of how the program will be utilized and what kinds of challenges it may encounter in real-time may be beneficial for testing the system. Furthermore, a requirements document is just as crucial as comprehending the program.

A clear and up-to-date requirements document may prevent a slew of misconceptions, assumptions, and queries for testers.

In summary, a clear and concise requirement document with the most recent revisions, as well as an awareness of real-time application use, may help ST be more productive. This testing is done in a methodical and organized way.

System Testing Types

ST is known as a superset of all sorts of testing since it covers all of the primary types of testing. Although the emphasis on different forms of testing varies according to the product, the organization’s procedures, the timetable, and the needs.

Overall, it may be summarized as follows −

• Functionality Testing − To ensure that the product’s functionality meets the established criteria while remaining within the system’s capabilities.

• Recoverability Testing − This ensures that the system can recover from a variety of input mistakes and other failure scenarios.

• Interoperability Testing − To determine whether or not the system is compatible with third-party goods.

• Performance Testing − Verifying the system’s performance in terms of performance characteristics under different conditions.

• Scalability Testing − To ensure that the system can scale in terms such as user scaling, geographic scaling, and resource scaling.

• Reliability Testing − To ensure that the system can be used for a longer period of time without failing.

• Regression Testing − To ensure the system’s stability as it integrates various subsystems and performs maintenance chores.

• Testing of the system’s user guide and other help-related documents to ensure that they are valid and useful.

• To ensure that the system does not enable unauthorized access to data and resources, security testing is performed.

• Usability testing is performed to ensure that the system is simple to use, understand, and run.

More Types of System Testing

• Graphical User Interface (GUI) Testing − GUI testing is used to see whether a system’s graphical user interface (GUI) performs as planned. The graphical user interface (GUI) is what a user sees when using a program. Buttons, icons, checkboxes, List boxes, Textboxes, menus, toolbars, dialog boxes, and other GUI elements are all tested.

• Testing for Compatibility − Compatibility testing ensures that the generated product is compatible with a variety of browsers, hardware platforms, operating systems, and databases, as specified in the requirements specification.

• Handling Exceptions − Handling Exceptions Testing is done to ensure that even if the product encounters an unexpected fault, it displays the relevant error message and does not cause the program to halt. The exception is handled in such a manner that the error is shown while the product recovers and the system is able to complete the wrong transaction.

• Testing by Volume − Volume testing is a sort of non-functional testing in which a large volume of data is used to test. To test the system’s performance, for example, the database’s data volume is raised.

• Stress Evaluation − Stress testing involves raising the number of users on an application (at the same time) until the program fails. This is done to see whether the application will fail at any point.

• Sanity Checks − When a build is published with a change in the code or functionality, or if a problem has been repaired, sanity testing is conducted. It ensures that the modifications made did not impact the code and that no new issues have arisen as a result, and that the system continues to function normally. If a problem arises, the build will not be approved for further testing. In order to save time and money, rigorous testing is not performed on the build, which results in the build being rejected due to a problem discovered. Sanity testing is done for the specific modification or problem that has been resolved, not for the whole system.

• Smoke Testing − Smoke Testing is a kind of testing that is done on a build to see whether it can be further tested or not. It ensures that the build is ready to test and that all-importanttime real features are operational. Smoke testing is carried out for the whole system, from start to finish.

• Exploratory Testing − Exploratory testing is all about investigating the application, as the name implies. Exploratory testing does not include any scripted testing. Along with the testing, test cases are written. It emphasizes implementation over preparation. The tester is free to test independently, relying on his intuition, experience, and intelligence. In contrast to other strategies that employ the structural method to execute testing, a tester may select any feature to test first, i.e. he can choose the feature to test at random.

• Adhoc Testing − Adhoc testing is unplanned testing that takes place without any documentation or preparation. The application is tested without any test cases by the tester. A tester’s goal is to break the application. To uncover the main faults in the program, the tester relies on his expertise, guesswork, and intuition.

• Checking the installation − The purpose of installation testing is to ensure that the program is installed correctly. The installation of the program is the user’s first engagement with the product, hence it’s the most crucial phase of testing. The sort of installation testing required is determined by a number of elements, including the operating system, platform, software distribution, and so on.

Conclusion

System testing is crucial because if done incorrectly, serious concerns might arise in the real world.

The properties of a system as a whole must be confirmed. Any webpage would be a basic example. If it isn’t well tested, the user may find the site to be very sluggish, or the site may crash if a big number of people log in at the same time.

These features cannot be checked until the whole website has been examined.