How do you align functional smoke testing with the agile development process and continuous integration?

In my point of view Smoke testing quickly checks if the critical functions of a software work after each build or deployment. It ensures basic functionality isn't compromised, providing fast feedback for further testing.

Pour aligner les tests de fumée fonctionnels avec le processus de développement Agile et l'intégration continue, plusieurs pratiques peuvent être adoptées : - Automatisation des tests de fumée - Intégration des tests de fumée dans le pipeline CI/CD - Priorisation des tests de fumée critiques - Rétroaction rapide - évolutivité des tests - Collaboration entre les équipes

Smoke testing, also known as “Build Verification Testing” or “Build Acceptance Testing,” is a type of software testing that is typically performed at the beginning of the development process to ensure that the most critical functions of a software application are working correctly. It is used to quickly identify and fix any major issues with the software before more detailed testing is performed. The goal of smoke testing is to determine if the build is stable enough to proceed with further types of testing.

In my experience functional smoke testing is indeed a great way to check that all the CORE capabilities are intact and the system is stable enough for test team for further testing. An example of functional smoke testing is the testing of main flow in Interactive Voice Response system.

Functional smoke testing is important because it quickly identifies critical issues, mitigates risks, provides fast feedback, optimizes resource utilization, and supports continuous integration.

Verifying requirements It ensures that the system meets the basic needs of users and stakeholders. Identifying defects It helps find and fix major bugs or issues that could impact the system's performance or quality. Reducing risk It lowers the chance of introducing new errors or breaking existing functionality when adding new features or making changes. Optimizing resources It can be run frequently due to its simple process and low resource requirements. Providing feedback It can quickly identify critical issues and provide fast feedback. Supporting continuous integration It can help ensure that future builds are constructed on bug-free software

Functional smoke testing is important because it helps identify major issues early in the software development process, which can save time, money, and effort: Find issues early Smoke testing helps identify major issues early in the development process, before more detailed testing is performed. Save time and money Smoke testing can save time and money by identifying issues early, which can reduce the need for more detailed testing. Ensure stability Smoke testing ensures that the software build is stable enough to proceed with further testing. Reduce risk Smoke testing reduces the risk of failure by identifying issues early. Provide feedback Smoke testing provides fast feedback on the health of the software.

Functional smoke testing is a software testing method that verifies that a new software build is ready for more in-depth testing by ensuring that its most important functions work as intended. It's also known as build verification testing, confidence testing, or build promotion testing

Perform functional smoke testing by identifying critical functions, creating test cases, executing them after each build or deployment, verifying results, documenting findings, providing feedback, and repeating the process regularly.

My testing strategy entails conducting functional smoke tests in higher-level environments. For instance, regression tests are performed in the testing environment, and once they are approved/signed off, the application is deployed in the pre-production environment, followed by the production environment where smoke tests are carried out. Furthermore, when scripting automation for the smoke test, I endeavor to restrict the utilization of test data to the greatest extent feasible, so as to avoid injecting fabricated data into the higher-level environment's database. As an illustration, I create a read-only test, in which the suite extracts text or validates elements with Boolean conditions, rather than going through the entire workflow.

Align functional smoke testing with agile development by integrating it into the continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline, automating test execution, focusing on critical functionalities, ensuring fast feedback loops, and adapting test coverage based on evolving requirements and priorities.

To align functional smoke testing with agile development, you can perform smoke testing at the end of each sprint or before deploying the software increment to the testing or production environment. This helps ensure that the software increment is functional and stable, and does not break any existing functionality.

Agile frequently moves so rapidly that the most effective way to execute functional smoke testing is by automating as much of the test case suite as possible. This allows for scheduling the automation package to execute on a regular basis, which will catch defects as early as possible. In my current position we have 2 week agile sprints and automation that runs against our staging environment daily and reports failures to a slack channel so that our automation experts can investigate right away.

Improve functional smoke testing by refining test case selection, enhancing automation, integrating with CI/CD pipelines, incorporating exploratory techniques, ensuring comprehensive coverage, and regularly reviewing and updating test cases to reflect changes in the software.

Update and maintain test cases Regularly review the functional requirements of your system and update your test cases to reflect changes in the software. Automate smoke tests Automated smoke tests can run more frequently and efficiently, especially if some parts of the testing suite are manual or time-consuming. You can also use automated smoke tests to test multiple features in a software program. Monitor and measure results Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the smoke testing process by monitoring and measuring the results and performance. Run smoke tests frequently Run smoke tests at every stage of the production environment, from before you commit until after deployment.

Update and maintain the smoke test suite As the functional requirements of the system change over time, the smoke test suite should be updated and maintained accordingly. Include scenarios in the smoke test Scenarios can include the design and functionality requirements for the software program, the functionality features of the software program, the efficiency and responsiveness of activated software features, and the presence of any technical glitches