What is Smoke Testing in Software Testing? Quick Overview

Smoke testing is a critical part of the testing process. Treat it as a quick check for the health of new builds from the development team. But what actually is the point of smoke testing in software testing? You should know that the ultimate goal of software testing is to ensure that the build is reliable and free of unwanted problems.

I have used this type of testing, and I feel it comes in handy before we go deep into comprehensive testing. Once this smoke testing finishes the checks, then the testing process will continue. The process may seem simple but holds significant importance in the overall software development process. I will provide some more details about this interesting type of testing. 

Keep on reading to get to know more about smoke testing in software testing.

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What is smoke Testing?

Software smoke testing is the process that verifies that new builds from the development do not contain bugs.  Such testing will enable the QA Team to progress ahead with further rounds of testing.

In this process, the team runs a series of tests on every build from the developer side during the software development cycle. This is done in order to evaluate the health of the software. Many testers also refer to this type of check as confidence testing of build verification or build promotion testing.

Smoke testing in software testing checks whether the most important functionalities work appropriately. Plus, you also come to know if the build is problem-free. This way, it ensures the smooth progress of the overall software development project. It may save time and money for the whole team since it can decide whether a build is defective.

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Characteristics of Smoke Testing

Due to its excellent qualities, smoke testing emerges as a preferred primary testing technique. When it was first developed, the purpose was only build verification. Here, it is used to verify that a software build is good enough for more intense testing.

This is the reason it is often referred to as ‘build verification testing’ or ‘build acceptance testing.’ Smoke testing will save a lot of time since it is quick to identify any main flaw. It will focus on the proper working of the functionality and highlight any issues immediately.

It is ideally an important characteristic if you consider the ‘shallow and wide’ strategy of the process.  In order to verify its essential functions, smoke testing would cover a range of functionalities at a surface level instead of going deep into each one.

By doing so, the team can be assured that critical functions are working properly. Logging in or accessing the main menu are prime examples of critical functions covered in this type of testing. These will make it possible for you to identify any major problems or crashes way ahead of time so you won't be surprised later.

Another vital point worth noting is that smoke tests are usually automated and recorded, especially in the context of agile software developments.

This is the reason why smoke testing is an efficient and dependable software development checkpoint as it offers immediate feedback and can be included in the continuous testing cycles. The build will come back for remediation when the problem occurs; this will save you much of your precious time on even deeper testing for a build that cannot stabilize.

This quality approach prevents any unwanted integration issues and enhances team collaboration. You can enable this advantage by bringing the development and QA teams around quality right from the start.

Types of Smoke Testing

You should know that there are three types of smoke testing. Keep reading to read more about them.

1. Manual tests

Under manual tests, the tester often designs and modifies the test case of the application that is being put under test. After developing these test cases, the tester will navigate through the application themselves and record its behavior.

2. Automated tests

Teams can also use automation to facilitate automated execution of the test case. It comes in handy for projects that have a short deadline.

3. Hybrid tests

Hybrid smoke testing involves teams using a combination of both automated as well as manual smoke tests. This step will help improve test coverage and enhance the performance of testing.

Why we need Smoke Testing?

Smoke testing is a crucial part of the software development cycle. It acts as the first screening check to determine whether the latest build is stable enough for further testing. It is considered to be the first line of protection against critical flaws by ascertaining that the most important features within an application are working  

A. Importance

Smoke testing in software testing helps the organization avoid the costs and efforts of doing a full suite of tests on a defective version by catching significant problems early on.

As a result, this type of evaluation will help you save most of the time and resources involved. Since the feedback comes quickly, engineers can try to resolve issues much earlier and assist in faster troubleshooting. 

Continuous integration environments will facilitate easier development cycles as they won't let the new code interfere with the primary functionalities.

B. Advantages

Here's a list of some smoke testing advantages. You may read ahead and learn more about them.

1. Early bug detection

Smoke testing in software testing will help you catch 80% of all possible problems. With continuous use of smoke testing, you would be able to catch errors with little hassle.

2. Reduced debugging time

It helps when you find out and rectify defects faster. This way, development teams limit the time needed for full regression testing. Faster debugging is among the most prominent benefits of smoke testing.

3. Increased confidence

Immediately before more thorough testing, the QA team gets confidence knowing that critical features are still intact. Improved confidence is one of the tremendous smoke testing benefits.

4. Productivity improvement

Teams can focus on other advanced tests and developmental processes by using automated smoke tests. Doing so will ensure prompt and valid conclusions.

Smoke Testing Example for Real Case Scenario

You may refer to the following given examples of smoke testing.

User case 1 - E-commerce Deployment Smoke Testing

An e-commerce company, before more comprehensive testing, had done smoke testing on a newly created shopping platform. In this phase, they checked basic features to ensure that they actually worked. As a result, the team could progress with further development without the risk of basic errors harming the entire project. 

For this phase of testing, they scrutinized critical modules like the shopping cart and payment process. They also checked about managing user profiles and product catalog. QA engineers made the automated smoke test cases, like user, log-in, cart addition, and checkout start.

After deploying, the team conducted these tests in a quality assurance environment. They did this to quickly catch severe defects. The process, therefore, ensured reliability on the platform all through. Plus, they ensured accelerated improvements via feature confirmation at all the build stages. For example, it saved time and avoided disruption to client service with the fast detection of issues related to login authentication.

User case 2 - A Realistic Example of Smoke Testing

Smoke and regression testing had become extremely tiring for an athletic clothing shop in North America. The organization had extensive and laborious manual smoke and regression testing. As a result, I had to suffer some testing times. The organization optimized its QA process with the use of a data-driven test automation framework. This is a good example of smoke testing that leads to larger gains in the development process.

They utilized automation tools like QTP to automate the scripts of running tests across different regional e-commerce projects, thus reducing the human efforts required.

Since it decreased the efforts of QA, they could validate new builds easily compared to the earlier process. This step led to development that could be continued across multiple projects.

Smoke Testing Vs. Other Testing Methods

1. Comparison of Sanity Testing with Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is applied to ensure the critical functions of an application work after a new rollout. Sanity testing verifies specific features when the changes or bug fixes are completed. Sanity tests verify specific areas to ensure that recent changes are in place and working correctly, whereas smoke tests offer a general health check.

2. Comparison of smoke testing and regression testing

After building, smoke testing in software testing is run as a pilot test to verify if the critical features work. However, regression testing is highly complex and is aimed at determining whether new code changes have impaired the features that already exist in the product.

Regression testing is conducted to ensure the overall stability of the application. On the other hand, smoke testing is carried out early in development.

3. Smoke Testing vs Acceptance Testing

You should know the comparison between smoke testing and acceptance testing; the difference here is in the purpose. Smoke testing will ensure that your app is reliable and that features are working properly. However, acceptance testing ensures that the program actually satisfies the expected business need. It confirms if the app or program is all set to be made available to end users.

Acceptance testing is meant to enable user satisfaction and meet requirements. For this purpose, it occurs shortly before deployment, but smoke testing happens much earlier.

4. Comparing Smoke Testing with Automated testing

In my experience, smoke testing is an instantaneous evaluation of the health of an application. This can either be done manually or automated. However, automated testing is a more holistic component of a testing strategy. It uses technologies to perform different test cases automatically, which includes smoke tests. Although they are a component of automated testing, smoke testing in software testing refers to simple evaluations that assure smooth functionality of the main components of the product.

Commonly Used Tools in Smoke Testing

1. Selenium

Selenium is an open-source automation tool. The main focus of this tool is on web applications. It is so popular because it has strong cross-platform and cross-browser support. Also, it supports languages like C#, Python, and Java. This advantage will be helpful to QA teams to automate basic functionality checks precisely to solve problems at their early stages. Unfortunately, you can't expect Selenium to support mobile apps, and it would be quite challenging for you to maintain test scripts.

2. Appium

Appium is one of the highly recommended tools for automated smoke testing for both iOS and Android mobile apps. It is open-source, and it supports various programming languages. What's more, it supports emulators and devices as well. Developers use it before they conduct more extensive testing. This flexibility allows them to find flaws in mobile releases and thereby ensure reliable performance. The main drawbacks include less support for hybrid apps and a lot of documentation should be provided.

Test Complete

This is a paid app. You can access it through desktop, mobile, and web applications. Because of its powerful visual scripting editing feature and easy interface, it is quite popular nowadays. Test Complete supports many languages of scripting. This makes testing management and development easier here. However, it may also have some cons, like price.

Quick Test Professional/Unified Functional Testing, or QTP/UFT

Microfocus developed QTP/UFT. In my experience, this is another commercial solution that allows automated testing on a variety of platforms. Although its simple GUI makes test development simple, people believe it is less suitable for projects with lower budgets. The main reason is the need for separate licensing for this tool. Also, I feel that the supporting elements for mobile are also very restricted.

End Note

To sum it up, I can say that smoke testing definitely plays a role in the software development space. With it, you can be assured that the build is bug-free so that it proceeds ahead for intensive testing. Teams may use automated tools like Appium and Selenium for this type of scrutiny. If you are willing to uplift your skills related to testing roles, then Automation testing training is your best choice. StarAgile will take you through various aspects of smoke testing during its intensive sessions.

FAQs

1. Why is Smoke Testing called Smoke Testing?

The term comes from the phenomenon observed in hardware testing. If the technicians find smoke once they turn on a new circuit board, they are going to stop there because it is an indication of malfunction. This is the same with smoke testing. This initial check will prevent further testing if issues are caught at this stage. At this point, the team will know if the build will be able to do further testing or not.

2. Which one comes first-smoke or sanity?

Smoke testing comes first over sanity testing if you wonder which one does first. Smoke tests will check its basic functionalities to find if the first build is ready for more testing. Sanity testing will then take place after fixes if the build passes. This process will establish definite fixes and help maintain stability.

3. What are the types of smoke tests?

You should know that there are different types of smoke tests. BVTs or build verification tests will test the first builds. Then, there is automated smoke testing that needs tools to run properly. Also, there is manual smoke testing, which the tester should do themselves. Lastly, we have configuration-specific tests. They provide reliable verification and ensure that the tech product works in various contexts and configurations.