System testing during development involves integrating components to create a version of the system and the testing the integrated system. It verifies that the components are compatible, interacts correctly, and transfer the right data at the right time, topically across its user interfaces. It obviously overlaps with integration testing, but the difference here is that system testing should involve all the system components together with the final user (typically impersonated).

There is an special type of system testing called end-to-end testing. In this approach, the final user is typically impersonated, that is, simulated using automation techniques.