The primary goals of software testing are to find and eliminate software problems while also maximizing software quality. Before finalizing adjustments and releasing the product to the market, testers must complete multiple levels of testing. 

Conducting an initial round of testing and discovering essential errors in software is one technique to identify critical issues in software. Smoke testing is one of the most effective ways to deal with software defects quickly and intelligently. The objective behind this sort of testing is to uncover major issues as soon as feasible and reject the build (return for revision) during the preliminary stage of testing. Smoke testing allows QA engineers to avoid lengthy and difficult inspections, allowing them to spend less time afterward correcting errors. This efficient strategy enables software developers and product owners to identify severe defects sooner, saving time and money. 

Let’s look at this form of testing in more detail.

1. What is Smoke Testing

Smoke Testing is a software testing method that assesses whether a software build has been deployed and is reliable. Smoke testing allows the QA team to continue with the rest of the software testing. It is composed of a small number of tests that are run on each build to verify program functionality. It is a requirement for software testing and informs the QA team whether or not they can proceed with further testing. Smoke tests are unique in that they must be performed on every new build. 

To put it another way, we’re checking to see if the main functionality is working and if there are any show-stoppers in the build we’re testing. To put it in context, think of it as a quick and simple regression test for major characteristics. It helps the team avoid spending time and resources on ineffective test processes, lowering project costs, and increasing profit. Libraries, data files, designed components, and reusable modules are all part of any software build.

All of these elements are allowed to understand one or more product functionalities. Smoke tests are designed to account for these features while ensuring compliance with requirements and system stability.

1.1. Features of Smoke Testing

Smoke testing has various distinguishing features that make it apart from other types of testing. As a result, we must comprehend these features in order to comprehend the principles of smoke testing. The following are some of the most important aspects of smoke testing:

• Smoke testing is also known as Build Verification Testing or Confidence Testing, in which the build is verified by testing the application’s most essential features and then passed to the next stage of testing depending on the test results.
• It’s an important part of the software development cycle where the build is validated by testing the application’s key features.
• Smoke tests can be done manually or automatically, depending on the test requirements.
• It can be applied to several levels of software testing, such as integration, system, and acceptability testing.
• This is a non-exhaustive test with a small number of test cases. Typically, smoke testing is carried out with positive instances and valid data.

2. Why do we Conduct Smoke Tests

Smoke testing is vital in software development since it assures the system’s accuracy in the early stages. We can save time and money by doing so. As a result, smoke tests ensure that the system is in proper working order. Only when we’ve completed smoke testing will we begin functional testing. 

2.1. Significance of Smoke Testing

• Smoke testing will identify all of the show stoppers in the construction.
• After the build has been released to QA, smoke testing is performed. Smoke testing identifies the majority of errors during the early stages of software development.
• Smoke testing makes detecting and correcting severe bugs much easier.
• The QA team can use smoke testing to uncover bugs in the application’s functioning that may have been introduced by the new code.

Example: When you click the submit button on the logging window, you’ll be able to advance to the next window with a valid login and password.

2.2. Advantages of Smoke Testing

 

• Early detection of show-stopping bugs

 

Testers report that they can uncover as many as 80% of the bugs they discover simply by configuring and executing a solid smoke testing suite.For many teams, smoke tests might be covering only 20% or less of all test cases and yet catch 80% or more of the bugs. This alone makes smoke testing efforts worth the time investment. 

 

• Create a satisfied, higher-productive QA team

 

When QA teams have more confidence in higher-viability builds passing the smoke test suite, they will be more productive and have a higher level of job satisfaction.

 

• New and regression bugs can be troubleshot more quickly

 

If any are discovered during smoke testing, the development team can begin debugging and performing root cause analysis much sooner rather than waiting until the full test suite has been completed. This is due to smoke testing suites’ large coverage and short depth. Consider this test suite to be a short overview of the application’s quality. If the build is reasonably feasible, QA can gain greater efficiency by continuing to perform (partial) regression testing on it while developers work on any smoke-test flaws. After fixing those flaws, the developers can go on to fixing any bugs discovered during regression testing by QA.

2.3. What Happens if We Don’t Conduct Smoke Testing

If we don’t conduct smoke testing early on, bugs may be discovered later on, when it is more expensive. Defects discovered later in the process can be show stoppers, affecting the performance of deliverables.

3. When Do We Perform Smoke Tests

When new software functionalities are built and integrated with an existing build in the QA staging environment, smoke testing is performed. It verifies whether or not all-important functions are stable and operational. The development team deploys the built-in QA in this testing procedure. Testers perform test cases on the build after taking subsets of test cases. The application’s critical functionality is tested by the QA team. The purpose of this set of test cases is to expose build faults. If these tests pass, the QA team will move on to Functional Testing. Any failure implies that the system should be returned to the project team. We undertake Smoke Testing to ensure the stability of the build whenever there is a change.

Example: In the login window, a new registration option is introduced, and the build is deployed with the updated code. We perform smoke testing on a new build.

4. How to Perform Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is normally done manually, although it is possible to automate the process. It may differ from one organization to another.

4.1. Manual Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is typically performed manually. It takes several forms depending on the company. Smoke testing is done to check that critical path navigation works as planned and does not cause any problems. Once the build has been released to QA, high-priority functionality test cases must be created and tested in order to identify severe system bugs. We’ll move on to functional testing if the test succeeds. If the test fails, the build is rejected and returned to the development team to be fixed. With a fresh build version, QA begins smoke testing once more. Smoke testing is done on new builds and will be incorporated with older builds to ensure the system’s accuracy. Before performing smoke testing, the QA team should ensure that the correct build versions are used.

4.2. Smoke Testing with Automation

For regression testing, automation testing is used. To perform against Smoke Test, we can employ a set of automated test cases. Developers may check builds quickly with the help of automation tests once a new build is ready for release. Rather than doing manual tests every time a new software build is deployed, recorded smoke test cases are performed against it. It checks to see if the major functions are still working properly. If the test fails, they can quickly correct the build and re-deploy it. We can save time and ensure a high-quality QA environment by doing so. All manual stages in the software build are recorded by a test engineer using an automated tool.

5. Process of Smoke Testing

The process of developing a smoke test will vary based on your application and the configuration of your build tool. But the basic steps of smoke testing should remain the same and these are as follows:

5.1. Test Planning

You should execute some setup activities after the build is completed and before you begin testing it. Installing licenses, storing files in many locations, creating a server, and other duties are among them.

5.2. Obtain Test Files

The next step is to obtain all of the files you wish to smoke test. To get the files that need to be tested to the local drive, 

5.3. Create a Script

Make sure your smoke testing has a single script for additional flexibility. At this point, the build script should also have remained stable. To conduct the smoke test, use the build tool. The test reports should be stored in the same directory as the build files. Errors should be brought to the attention of developers as soon as they occur.

5.4. Clean Up

You must clean up following the smoke test. Stopping a server, deleting files, and emptying database tables are all examples of what you can do. This might also be done before the initial setup phase to make sure the environment is clean before any tests begin.

6. Smoke Testing versus Re-testing, as well as Sanity and Regression testing

Other testing techniques such as re-test, sanity, and regression testing are quite similar to smoke testing. As a result, newcomers to software testing, as well as experienced testers, commonly get these concepts mixed up. Let’s look at the difference between them:

 

Basis	Smoke	Regression	Sanity	Re-test
When to Execute	Prior to regression	Parallel to re-testing	Before and after the regression and smoke tests	Prior to sanity and regression testing
Location in the testing types system	Type of Regression testing.	Performed if there are any changes or modifications to an existing project	Type of Acceptance testing.	Performed utilizing the same data, in the same environment, but with a different set of input data on the updated component.
Purpose	To ensure the system’s stability before moving on to more “rigorous testing”	To ensure that recent code modifications haven’t had a negative impact on existing functionality.	To check the system’s entire status before moving on to more thorough testing.	To verify that previously completed test cases pass once the problems have been addressed.

 

Naturally, the distinction between these concepts is conditional, and it is up to you to draw it within the project structure. However, in order to advance professionally, you must understand what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how well you’re doing it. As a result, the table above will be helpful.

Conclusion

Smoke tests should be conducted on every build without failure in Software Engineering since it helps in the early detection of defects. The ultimate step before the software build enters the system stage is the smoke test. It is a simple procedure that takes very little time to assess the application’s stability. Smoke tests can save test effort while improving the application’s quality. Depending on the customer and the business, smoke testing can be done manually or automatically.

 

TestDel testing service in the UK  focused to ensure the highest possible software quality for our customers. We’ve worked with over 50 customers in industries ranging from banking and healthcare to retail and technology.

 

TestDel’s testers have mastered how to carefully use smoke testing thanks to their years of experience. Our in-depth understanding of numerous testing techniques enables us to locate unseen bugs in various software components and provide the best solution for your company. Feel free to contact us.