Smoke Testing:

What is a Smoke Test?

• Basic sanity flows of an application which covers most of the major functions of the software but none of them in depth.
• Also known as “Build Verification Testing”, is a type of software testing that comprises of a non-exhaustive set of tests that aim at ensuring that the most important functions work.

Function of Smoke Tests:

• They can be used over and over as a system's functionality grows. Testing is developed to verify core functions work as designed.
• Smoke test helps in exposing integration trouble spots and major problems early in the cycle.
• Tests can be Manual or Automated. If builds are created frequently, it might be best to automate the smoke tests.

Test Results:

• The result of this test are used to decide if a build is stable enough to proceed with further testing. If the smoke test passes, go ahead with further testing. If it fails, halt further tests and ask for a new build with the required fixes. If an application is badly broken, detailed testing might be a waste of time and effort. [1]

Fun Fact:

💨 The term ‘smoke testing’, it is said, came to software testing from a similar type of hardware testing, in which the device passed the test if it did not catch fire (or smoked) the first time it was turned on. [1]

Resource(s):

• https://www.launchship.com/quality-assurance
• [1] http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/smoke-testing/
• [2] https://pt.slideshare.net/ThanhPhan7/testing-modernapplifecycle-sanity-test-and-smoke-test/7?smtNoRedir=1
• TestingAcronyms
• CommonTestingTerms