What is smoke testing?

Software testing techniques like smoke testing, build verification testing, and confidence testing are used to assess if a new software build is prepared for the following stage of testing. This testing approach checks if a program’s most important features operate, but it skips over the finer points.

Before more thorough testing is done, smoke testing is used as a first software check to identify both fundamental and serious problems with an application. Quality assurance (QA) teams move on to additional testing if a software product passes a smoke test. The software must be returned to the development team in the event of a failure.

Using test cases that cover the most crucial features of a software program, smoke testing aims to find minor but serious flaws. QA teams utilize smoke tests, which are a small set of software functionality-focused tests, on every build.

Without smoke testing, significant flaws can go unnoticed, increasing the likelihood that they would eventually lead to more serious difficulties.

The phrase “smoke testing” comes from a simple hardware testing procedure where a gadget is considered successful if it doesn’t catch fire when it first turns on. According to former IEEE editor-in-chief and software engineering expert Steve McConnell, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers promotes industry best practices in Code Complete, including daily build and smoke tests.

What are the different types of smoke testing?

Among the different kinds of smoke testing are:

manual examination of smoke. Smoke tests are manually carried out by human software testers. This involves creating and revising test cases by hand. Additionally, test scripts for both new and old features are written by hand.
smoke testing that is automated. The method of smoke testing is automated through the use of software tools. By automatically generating pertinent tests, smoke testing technologies improve the efficiency of the testing procedure.

testing for hybrid smoke: In hybrid testing, testers create test cases and then use a tool to automate the tests, combining automated and manual smoke testing.

How smoke testing works and how to perform a smoke test:

When developers release a new version of an application, QA testers conduct smoke testing. The test can be run automatically or manually with scripts that have already been written.

The software is integrated with an existing build in the QA and staging environment if the smoke test is successful. After that, the software build undergoes more thorough testing, including integration and unit tests. The testers have found a significant issue that stops all additional testing if the smoke test is unsuccessful. After then, QA teams request a patched build from developers.

Compared to doing particular and rigorous tests at this early stage of the software development process, the team found that this broad initial test is a more effective way to enhance software code.

Additionally, smoke testing is carried out with the user experience in mind. This method involves testing important features, like if the build is available or whether the login process and user interface work as intended. Finding out if a chosen action aligns with the anticipated activity is one of the other essential features.

The type of smoke test determines how it is conducted, and different organizations may use different methods.

The general steps involved in conducting a smoke test could be as follows:

Choose between automated, hybrid, or manual testing. Automated tests may be conducted if additional components are added to the smoke test, but manual testing is typically selected initially.
Make scenarios for testing. The number of test cases required for each essential software feature must be known by QA testers. Software and organizational requirements and standards should be taken into consideration when choosing pass/fail metrics.

Make the smoke tests. Write and construct the test suites using automated or manual procedures.
Conduct and document testing. Testers should have a procedure in place to document the outcomes of each test while doing smoke tests. This can be automated or done by hand.
Examine the findings of the smoke test. The software is sent back to the development team for additional testing if it doesn’t work. It is prepared for further thorough functional testing if it passes.
Writing and updating smoke tests is a requirement for manual smoke tests. Each requirement is met by manually modifying the scripts. Additional tools are utilized in automated smoke tests to rapidly test key functionalities. In hybrid smoke tests, a tester creates the test cases and uses automated tools for smoke testing to run the tests.

Advantages of smoke testing:

For the following reasons, smoke testing is an important component of the testing procedure:

Tests can be conducted more frequently and more quickly thanks to automation.
Future builds are built on software that is free of bugs.

It finds flaws early in the development process.
By doing this, the risks of adding code to already-existing build integrations are reduced.
Because smoke tests are easy to perform and require few resources, they can be conducted frequently.
Implementation options include automatic, hybrid, and human methods.
It ensures that a build is reliable by confirming software quality early in the development process.

Disadvantages of smoke testing:

Nevertheless, there are certain drawbacks to smoke testing, such as:

Only specific essential features of a program are tested during smoke testing; other features are not covered.
Smoke tests might not detect every defect or issue, and some might not be discovered until later in the development process.

In larger projects, manual smoke testing takes longer to finish.

What is the smoke testing cycle?

The development team delivers a build at the beginning of the smoke testing cycle. QA passes the first smoke test on that build. Tests are made, the program is tested, and specific test cases are ranked according to essential or crucial characteristics.

Software that fails the first smoke test is returned to the development team for correction before being submitted back to QA. In the QA and staging environment, the program is integrated with an existing build after passing another round of smoke tests. More thorough functional testing may now be performed on the software.