Final answer:
System testing evaluates the behavior of a whole system or subsystem against technical and user requirements. It focuses on the integrated software product and differs from unit and integration testing.
Step-by-step explanation:
System testing is the process that examines the behavior of an entire system or independent subsystem to ensure it meets both technical and user requirements. Unlike unit testing, which focuses on individual components or pieces of code, or integration testing, which ensures that different modules work together as expected, system testing evaluates the complete and integrated software product.
The goal of system testing is to evaluate the system's compliance with the specified requirements and assess whether it is ready for release. Different types of system tests include functionality testing, performance testing, stress testing, usability testing, and security testing, among others. This phase comes after integration testing and before validation testing (acceptance testing) in most software development lifecycles.