So first, some definitions. Pardon me for my hubris, but there are so many different definitions of “unit test” and “system test” and “acceptance test” out there that it seems to me someone ought to provide a single authoritative definition. I don’t know if these definitions will stick; but I hope some set of definitions does in the near future.
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Unit Test: A test written by a programmer for the purpose of ensuring that the production code does what the programmer expects it to do. (For the moment we will ignore the notion that unit tests also aid the design, etc.)
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Acceptance Test: A test written by the business for the purpose of ensuring that the production code does what the business expects it to do. The authors of these tests are business people, or technical people who represent the business. i.e. Business Analysts, and QA.
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