What is Smoke Testing?
What is Smoke Testing?
When it comes to software testing, "What is a smoke test?" is an often-asked question. A smoke test is a form of software test that ensures that a program's most crucial features are operational. It is sometimes known as "Build Acceptance Testing" or "Build Verification Testing." The purpose of smoke testing is to assess whether or not a build is stable enough to move forward with further testing. Smoke tests, which contain basic functionality tests, are often a subset of the whole product test suite. Smoke testing is frequently used as the initial step in a broader testing procedure since it helps to uncover problems immediately before additional effort is spent diagnosing and resolving them.?
We will learn "what is a smoke test" in this article.
When Should Smoke Testing Be Used?
Smoke Testing is often performed at the beginning of a development cycle, once a build has been deployed to a test environment, to ensure the application's basic features function properly.
Let's have a look at several scenarios using examples of smoke testing.
1. Release of a new feature or functionality
A common example of a smoke test is testing a product after launching a new feature. Most software products frequently release new features or functionalities.?Because releases are frequent, the testing team may not have enough time to finish a test round.
During this scenario, the testing team can keep an automated or manual smoke test suite running to ensure the product's reliability with each milestone release.?When a new feature or functionality is added to a product, a predefined software smoke test suite can be run to see if the inclusion of the new feature created any problems.?
2. Significant bug fix or update
After a major bug repair or upgrade, smoke testing can be done to ensure that the product remains stable.?
A smoke test on a major bug fix would involve testing the fix to ensure that it addresses the bug successfully. This could entail retesting the software's functionality, running the code through an automated testing suite, and inspecting the code for faults. The test should also ensure that the bug remedy does not introduce new bugs or have undesired side effects.
3. System Improvement
Testing should be performed after a software upgrade or patch to ensure that the new smoke test software is compatible with the existing product.
A smoke test for a system update would include performing simple tests that interface with the new system and looking for any unexpected problems or failures. This would involve routine tasks like entering into the system, browsing the smoke test software, and running simple queries. If any unexpected failures or crashes occur during the smoke test, the system upgrade should be reviewed further before it is deployed.
4. Major Code Refactoring
Another common example of a smoke test is testing the product after extensive code reworking. Smoke testing can be done after a code reorganization or a large change in the code base to confirm that the code is still functioning as planned.
5. Branch Merge with Complexity
Smoke testing can be done after merging branches or several code modifications to check that all changes have been successfully merged and the product is still operational.
After a branch merge, a software smoke test would involve running a series of tests to check that the merge did not bring any new defects or regressions into the codebase. This could include ensuring that the code compiles successfully, unit tests pass, and the application performs as planned.
The Purpose and Importance of Smoke Testing
Smoke testing is primarily used to pinpoint critical problems and rapidly assess the application's overall stability. Smoke testing assists in locating significant flaws and issues early in the development process so they may be addressed quickly before moving on to more thorough and in-depth testing. Regression testing includes smoke testing as a crucial component because it aids in locating newly presented problems on existing features that might have been brought about by recent modifications in the application code.
Characteristics of Smoke Testing
1. Smoke testing are carried out promptly.
Smoke testing is intended to be quick and simple to perform. Depending on the size of the programme, it should only take a few minutes or hours to run. Because smoke tests are short, any big flaws may be recognised and rectified quickly, saving time and money.?
2. Smoke Tests Are Non-exhaustive
Smoke tests are non-exhaustive because they are intended to establish quickly whether a product is reliable enough to be evaluated further. It does not cover all of the smoke testing software's features. It is intended to be a high-level exam of the most critical features. They let developers and testers to focus their efforts by identifying major issues.
3. Smoke testing needs to be automated.
To run efficiently and easily, smoke testing should be automated using smoke testing software. As needed, automated tests can be conducted more frequently. Automation also guarantees that tests are conducted and reported reliably and on schedule, allowing engineers to focus on more critical responsibilities. Automated smoke tests also make regression testing easier and can be easily integrated into Continuous Integration (CI) processes.
4. Smoke testing is a non-invasive method.
The non-intrusive nature of smoke testing has numerous advantages. It enables testers to find serious errors fast without having to delve deep into the code. This helps identifying any big faults in the system easier and faster. Furthermore, non-intrusive testing helps to cut testing costs by requiring less time for debugging and error correction.?
5. Smoke testing must concentrate on Critical Paths.
Software smoke testing should concentrate on the application's critical path, or the most vital features that must function properly. This may reduce the possibility of a project or process failing due to a system error.
Benefits of Smoke Testing
Because of the nature of its execution, smoke testing delivers numerous benefits for the software development life cycle. Let's take a look at some of the primary advantages of using smoke testing software.
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Limitations of Smoke Testing
Let's take a look at some of the biggest smoke testing restrictions that QA Engineers and Developers confront.
Smoke Testing vs Sanity Testing
Both smoke testing and sanity testing are methods of software testing used to detect severe flaws in a software build. Smoke testing is a wide test that determines whether the system is stable enough to continue testing, whereas sanity testing is a more targeted test that determines whether a single feature or operation works as expected.
Smoke testing, which is performed early in the software testing process, is a non-exhaustive, fast evaluation of the system's most significant functions and features. After smoke testing, sanity testing is performed, which is a shorter and more concentrated test of a given feature or behavior. Sanity testing focuses on the system's most crucial areas and is used to identify serious problems with a certain feature or capability.
How does Smoke Testing work?
Smoke testing normally involves running a series of simple tests on a software application to ensure that it can execute its most crucial functions. These fundamental tests may include evaluating the application's user interface, basic navigation, and data entry and retrieval. If the application passes these tests, it is termed "smoke tested" and is ready for more extensive testing.
Types of Smoke Testing
There are two types of smoke testing: formal and informal.?
1. Formal smoke testing
The program is delivered to the Test Lead via this technique by the development team. The test lead will then direct the QA team to perform smoke testing. The smoke testing report will be sent to the test lead once the testing team has completed the smoke testing.
2. Informal smoke testing
The Test lead alerts the user that the program is ready for testing. Even though the test leads do not order the QA team to perform smoke testing, the QA team begins testing the application with a smoke testing cycle.
Different ways to perform Smoke Testing
1. Manual Testing
Manual smoke testing includes manually performing a number of basic tests to check that the software operates as expected. It usually consists of testing the software's most basic capabilities, such as logging in, creating a new account, displaying a list of data, and doing basic searches. If any of these tests fails, the software is considered unstable, and further testing should be avoided until the problem is resolved.
2. Automation Testing
In automation testing, the test execution is automated using smoke testing software. Before conducting more extensive testing, automated smoke test suites are used to ensure that an application is operating properly. Prior to conducting more extensive testing, automated smoke tests can be utilised to find any significant problems that need to be fixed.
3. Hybrid Testing
It combines both manual and automated testing, with manual tests serving as a backup to the latter. It combines the advantages of both manual and automated testing, including the latter's quicker test execution and repeatability and the former's capacity to test complex scenarios. In order to increase test coverage, hybrid testing is employed. It is particularly helpful for ensuring that intricate user flows are reliably and consistently tested.?
Summary
Let's sum up by defining smoke testing. You learned about smoke tests in this article. When should you use a smoke test? Examples of smoke testing in the real world, the significance of smoke testing, its traits, advantages, drawbacks, varieties, and best practises are all covered. We also talked about the distinction between smoke testing and sanity testing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called smoke testing?
The phrase "smoke testing" was first used in the hardware sector to describe a test procedure that involved turning on a device and looking for any telltale symptoms of smoke or fire. The comparison was later made to software testing, where a smoke test is used to assess a software build's fundamental operation and pinpoint any pressing problems that require attention.
Is smoke testing black box?
A developer or someone with internal code expertise can perform smoke testing. In this situation, the developer is classified as a white box tester. Furthermore, smoke testing can be performed by someone who does not have inside code knowledge, such as a Quality Assurance Engineer. At that point, the tester will be classified as a black box tester. Smoke testing is typically classified as black box testing, although in some cases, it may be classified as white box testing as well.
Who performs smoke testing?
Software testers or quality assurance staff generally carry out smoke testing. Smoke testing is a technique that developers can use to ensure that the code they have written is operating as intended.