What is smoke testing?
Smoke testing is also known as ‘Build Verification Testing’. It is a type of software testing method that validates that the deployed software build is stable or not and checks that the most important features work as expected. If the smoke test fails then it is very likely the build is immediately rejected by the QA team and is not sent further for release. As QA teams are involved in this process, the test is done in a QA environment, to ensure that the product is stable and fully functional.
Smoke test has got its name from a hardware testing type where a smoke test is performed on pipelines to check whether it catches fire when it is turned on for the first time.
What are some of the tips to perform smoke testing?
Test early
It is better to start the test as early as possible. You can start smoke test during the requirement gathering stage by defining the critical points you want in the application. Later you can expand the test by adding new test cases. In this way, you will be verifying critical points of application at every stage.
Clearly define the scope of the test
Smoke test is performed to check the most important and basic feature of the product. Therefore while defining the scope of the test you should keep only the most critical functionalities of application in test scope. For eg, If you are planning to develop an e-commerce application, the main functionality that test scope should concern is the login logout feature, add to cart functionality.
Smoke test should be executed quickly
Since the smoke test is conducted to check the main critical functionalities and confirm whether it is worth to continue testing further or not, it is advisable to complete a smoke test within one hour. Although there is no such definate time limit for smoke test.
Automate smoke test wherever possible
As you will move further with product build and smoke test you will arrive at a constant smoke test set. Consider automating the smoke test wherever possible to save time and effort.
Maintain a test repository
It is very important to maintain a repository for smoke tests as you will be conducting smoke tests cyclically. To reduce the effort of creating the smoke test cases from scratch every time you run the test, it is essential to create a repository and use an already existing set. Whenever the changes are made to software it is essential to review and update smoke test cases.
Use appropriate tools
Whether you perform smoke test manually or automate the test, it is very essential to determine the best tool for smoke test that suits your requirements and expectations and delivers expected results. A well-choosen tool is very important for the success of smoke test.
Conclusion:
To beat the competition, today companies need quality products in the form of high-performing web and mobile apps. Software testing is essential to achieve quality products. There are various types of software testing, namely unit testing, system testing, integration testing, security testing, smoke testing, interface testing, and many more. Smoke testing plays an important role among these testing methods as it is conducted on each new build to verify whether the build is broken or can be moved further for testing.
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