Smoke testing is a software testing technique used to determine whether a new application build is stable and free from critical defects.
Also referred to as sanity testing, confidence testing, or build verification, it ensures that essential functionalities work correctly before further testing proceeds.
History of Smoke Testing:
“Smoke Testing” had its roots in hardware testing, where hardware would be considered passed if it didn’t smoke or burn when connected. This was later used in software testing to merely test for fatal failures in a build before extensive testing was done.
What is Smoke Testing?
Smoke Testing is an easy and primary test on software builds to check whether the core functionalities behave as anticipated. It checks if the application is stable enough to perform more complicated testing.
It is mostly termed as “Build Verification Testing.” Smoke Testing is a line check to check if a new software build created is stable before executing full-fledged testing processes.
When to Use Smoke Testing?
Smoke Testing is usually conducted under the following conditions:
- When a new build of the software is available.
- Before running large regression or functional tests.
- After adding new features or fixing bugs to verify that they do not affect current functionality.
- To verify the basic functionalities of the application are working prior to going through subsequent stages of testing.
- Both manual and automated test environments for verifying software stability.
Who Does Smoke Testing?
Smoke Testing is commonly done by those in the Quality Assurance (QA) team who also act as testers. It is sometimes even done by the developers prior to submitting the build to the testing team. This aims to catch early defects and check that the build is adequately prepared to undergo complete validation.
The Purpose and Importance of Smoke Testing:
The main goal of Smoke Testing is to identify critical defects early in the software development process so that only stable builds are allowed to move forward for more detailed testing. Its importance is:
- Saving testing efforts by weeding out unstable builds early.
- Saving precious time and effort by not squandering them on faulty builds by means of useless testing.
Offering rapid feedback about the general stability and wellness of the software build.
Improving software quality by detecting critical defects prior to performing extensive testing.
Objective of Smoke Testing:
The primary purpose of Smoke Testing is to confirm that the primary features of an application are performing as anticipated and whether or not the test may continue. If a build is failing in the Smoke Test, it is discarded and returned to developers to repair it, allowing only working builds to continue in the testing cycle.
What a Smoke Test Reveals?
A Smoke Test confirms whether an application’s simple operation functions as anticipated. It assists in checking for major problems early enough to avoid testing a flaky build. If the test fails, the build is rejected for fixing purposes to ensure the software is stable enough for full testing.
What is the Smoke Test Process?
Smoke Testing technique is to run simple tests on the major functionalities of the software to verify stability prior to beginning rigorous testing. If major functionality is found to be failing, the build is returned for fix immediately. This technique saves time because it identifies major issues at the early phases of the test cycle.
Smoke Testing vs. Sanity Testing:
Smoke Testing checks for the major features of a new build to be in working condition prior to detailed testing.
Sanity Testing is a complete test conducted to check for certain bug fixes or small changes in the application. While Smoke Testing is general and checks for general stability, Sanity Testing is specific and checks for small changes without performing a complete test of the whole system.
Smoke Testing versus Regression Testing:
Smoke Testing verifies the most important features in a new build to verify basic stability.
Regression Testing is a more thorough validation to confirm that new changes have not added defects into current features. Smoke Testing is done first to confirm the build can be tested, while Regression Testing is more thorough and done later in the testing process to confirm all current features after creating changes.
Purpose of Smoke Testing:
The main function of Smoke Testing is to identify key problems at an early stage in the development cycle and avoid subsequent testing of erroneous builds. Through stabilizing the software in advance prior to moving on to detailed testing, teams can conserve time, effort, and resources, resulting in improved software development and deployment.
How is Smoke Testing Done?
A fresh software build is produced.
Testers run a set of basic tests on key functionality like login, navigation, and basic operations. Software goes to finer levels of testing if the test passes.
If the test fails, the development team fixes issues before running Smoke Testing. The process assists in the early identification of simple faults and avoiding wasteful time on flaky builds.
FAQs:
Q1: Is Smoke Testing identical to Sanity Testing?
No, Smoke Testing ensures that the critical functionalities are working, but Sanity Testing only checks individual changes and not the whole application.
Q2: Can Smoke Testing be automated?
Smoke Testing can be automated through scripts to make it faster and obtain consistent results for each build.
Q3: How frequently must Smoke Testing be conducted?
Smoke Testing must be done every time a new build is deployed to verify software stability before moving to detailed test phases.
Conclusion:
Smoke Testing is part of software testing and development that enables teams to identify essential defects early in order to build stable software and not subject it to rigorous tests that might jeopardize its fate.
Conducting Smoke Testing is one way software teams save both money and time as well as preserve the general quality of software in the end for a simpler and improved experience, and easy development.
