Concepts:
Stages of Test
Testing is usually applied to different types of targets in different stages
of the software's delivery cycle. These stages progress from testing small
components (unit testing) to testing completed systems (system testing).
Unit Test 
Unit test, implemented early in the iteration, focuses on verifying the
smallest testable elements of the software. Unit testing is typically applied to
components in the implementation model to verify that control flows and data
flows are covered and function as expected. These expectations are based on how
the component participates in executing a use case, which you find from sequence
diagrams for that use case. The Implementer performs unit test as the unit is
developed. The details of unit test are described in the Implementation
discipline.
Integration Test
Integration testing is performed to ensure that the components in the
implementation model operate properly when combined to execute a use case. The
target-of-test is a package or a set of packages in the implementation model.
Often the packages being combined come from different development organizations.
Integration testing exposes incompleteness or mistakes in the package's
interface specifications.
System Test
System testing is done when the software is functioning as a whole, or when
well-defined subsets of its behavior are implemented. The target, in this case,
is the whole implementation model for the system.
Acceptance Test
Acceptance testing is the final test action prior to deploying the software.
The goal of acceptance testing is to verify that the software is ready and can
be used by the end-users to perform those functions and tasks the software was
built to do. See Concepts: Acceptance Testing for
additional information.
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