Smoke Testing vs Sanity Testing: All You Need To Know
Introduction
While there are several processes involved in creating flawless software, "Testing" is the most important one before its release. Software dependability, efficacy, and efficiency are guaranteed by certain types of testing. Basic techniques like smoke and sanity testing make sure these requirements are satisfied at different points in software development.
Even though they are used often, there are some misunderstandings around these terms as well. Hence, let's explore the differences between sanity testing and smoke testing, as well as their uses and advantages, in more detail.
First, let's define smoke testing so we can talk about how it compares to sanity testing.
What Is Smoke Testing?
Smoke testing is a testing approach to make sure that a software program or system still works properly after it has been built and released. It is used to make sure the build is solid enough to move on to the next round of testing. To ensure the software application is working correctly and free of major problems that might hinder further testing, smoke testing is conducted. This is a brief and basic assessment. It is common practice for testers or developers to do smoke tests prior to conducting thorough testing.
When Is Smoke Testing Performed?
In order to find bugs in the preliminary release software, smoke testing is done after its creation in the initial stages of the software development life cycle (SDLC). The testing process guarantees that the program's essential features are functioning properly and in harmony with one another. Devices made of hardware undergo a comparable test to guarantee they do not emit smoke when stimulated electrically. This is how the "smoke test" came to be. It is commonly employed in system testing, integration testing, and tester acceptance testing; it is a part of acceptance testing.
What Is The Purpose Of Smoke Testing?
Smoke testing aims to find and remove bugs in the software's core rather than conducting thorough testing. It finds mistakes at the beginning of the SDLC process so that later stages are not wasted. The key advantage of smoke testing is that it saves time by detecting integration difficulties and other mistakes early on and providing insights.
An example of a smoke test would be to determine whether the software runs or opens the user interface. Further testing will be fruitless if this one also fails. No additional time will be wasted by the team during installation or testing. As a result, smoke tests often cover a wide range of product functionalities in a short amount of time. Instead of running more comprehensive test suites, which would inevitably take a lot more time, they run swiftly and give faster feedback.
It is possible to conduct a smoke test manually or with the help of automated equipment. The process that creates the build is often the one that starts the testing when it comes to automated smoke tests. Thanks to automation, tests may be run more quickly, giving your input quickly so you can take action on it right away.
What Is Sanity Testing?
Sanity testing is one of the testing approaches to make sure that certain features or functions of an element of software are still working right after changes have been made or bugs have been fixed. Ensuring that the modifications to the program haven't caused any new problems with the particular features or parts is the primary goal of sanity testing. Following regression testing, sanity testing is carried out with a concentration on selected parts of the program.
When Is Sanity Testing Performed?
Before moving on to the next level of testing, sanity testing ensures that any newly added modules to an existing software package are functioning as intended. It assesses the efficacy of software regressions and is a type of regression testing.
After the smoke test has been approved by the quality assurance team, the next step is to conduct sanity testing. Verifying the application's performance, rather than doing extensive testing, is the main focus of this testing phase. The test cases that are chosen for execution during sanity testing are carefully picked to only touch the critical parts and pieces of a module, feature, or whole system.
What Is The Purpose Of Sanity Testing?
The primary goal of Sanity testing is to ensure that the modifications or new features are functioning as expected. The sanity test verifies that the development can be tested end-to-end without any hitches in the event that there are small code modifications that need to be made. Time and money are saved when the testing team declines the software version in the event that the test fails.
Let's say you're working on an e-commerce project. You have a number of sections, such as the home page, the login page, the user profile page, the registration of new users, etc. Unfortunately, the login page has a bug that allows passwords with less than six alphanumeric characters, even though the requirement states that the field should not accept passwords with less than eight digits. The group of testers then notifies the development team, who fix the issue and send it back. To make sure the modifications are functioning properly and won't affect other relevant features, the testing team would look into it. The user profile page has a feature that allows you to change your password. To make sure everything is in order, the sanity test needs to analyze the login page as well as the user profile page. When fixing a serious defect or releasing the program to production immediately is required, sanity tests are usually run on the build.
Key Comparison: Smoke Testing vs Sanity Testing
- Overview and history
From the very beginning of software development, smoke testing, and sanity testing have been integral parts of software quality assurance procedures. In hardware testing, the phrase "smoke testing" originally meant powering on a new component of hardware to check for electrical problems that may cause it to emit smoke. In contrast, the idea of sanity testing arose as a means to rapidly determine if software modifications had produced significant problems. As software systems have gotten more complicated and technology has progressed, both forms of testing have changed.
- Distinction in the scope
Smoke testing usually encompasses a wider range of features, including the software's essential functions and paths. Sanity testing, on the other hand, is more targeted and focused on recently added features or repaired faults. Sanity testing focuses on particular modifications or additions, whereas smoke testing attempts to guarantee the build's general stability.
- Frequency recommendations
More frequent runs of smoke tests—sometimes with each new build or integration—help to spot big problems that might slow down development or testing. In contrast, sanity tests are usually run after major updates or additions, such fresh functions or bug patches, to confirm certain functionalities that have been impacted by these changes.
- Different scales
By verifying the program's fundamental functions without digging deeply into individual aspects, smoke testing offers a broad but shallow assessment of the program. On the other hand, sanity testing checks if certain features or functions are functioning as intended by digging deeper into the regions affected by recent changes.
- Objectivity in assessments
By highlighting critical flaws that may hamper testing, smoke testing primarily aims to ascertain if the system is sufficiently secure to proceed with testing. To ensure that recent improvements have not negatively impacted important components of the product, sanity testing tries to swiftly validate particular properties or functions impacted by the newest modifications or updates.
- Execution time
Smoke tests are made to run fast so you can see how stable the final product is right away. Sanity tests, on the other hand, may take a little longer as they probe certain features that have been impacted by recent updates. To minimize testing delays and promote agile development approaches, both kinds of testing should be conducted rapidly.
When to Use Smoke and Sanity Testing?
Smoke testing is very helpful in the beginning phases of software development when CI/CD is taking place in a DevOps setting. To guarantee that each release is reliable and effective enough to move forward with testing or execution, it's best used in scenarios where versions are created often. As an example, smoke testing may quickly assess essential features in a Java-based project using DevOps principles, ensuring that the API endpoints work properly and fundamental functions are intact, following each integration.
In order to validate the specific capabilities impacted by changes to the program, such as new features or bug patches, sanity testing is required as development continues. This method of testing works well when there is a need to validate recent changes thoroughly without assessing the complete system thoroughly. To ensure that recently added features or important parts of the API affected by changes function as expected with little testing effort, sanity testing in a Java project may concentrate on these areas.
According to the stage of software development and modifications made, it is necessary to choose the correct testing approach, such as sanity testing or smoke testing. To keep the program stable and speed up the feedback loop, prioritize smoke testing throughout the very beginning or continuous integration phases. On the flip side, sanity testing lets you validate individual features as the program becomes better and older, so you know that modifications won't break anything or cause regressions. In the end, the software product's quality and dependability are improved by using a strategic approach to testing that takes into account the changing project requirements.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Smoke Testing and Sanity Testing
Advantages of Smoke Testing
There are a number of ways in which smoke testing helps software engineers. Before moving on to more extensive testing, it offers a fast way to verify that the recently merged code changes are stable and that essential features are working as intended. Identifying significant problems early on in the development process aids in keeping the workflow efficient. The testing team may zero down on critical aspects via smoke testing, which is a subset of regression testing, rather than having to test the entire system thoroughly. Smoke testing may be run quickly and often with test automation, which saves even more time and money. Smoke test scripts may be easily created and executed with the help of multiple testing tools and manuals. This further streamlines the process.
Advantages of Sanity Testing
To gain a better understanding of the software's stability, sanity testing validates certain capabilities or modules that have been impacted by recent modifications. Without having to test the system thoroughly, the testing team may concentrate on the most important parts. Furthermore, sanity testing is great for making sure the product is reliable after each update by checking if new features or problem fixes have been included. Sanity testing, when used in conjunction with other testing techniques like as performance testing, helps to ensure overall quality by finding problems early on in the development process.
Potential Challenges or Drawbacks of Smoke and Sanity Testing
Both sanity tests and smoke tests have their advantages, but they also have some possible drawbacks. Since smoke testing mostly targets essential features, it could miss some integration problems or bugs. To address this, it is crucial to use smoke testing in conjunction with more thorough testing methods, such as system testing. The same holds true for sanity testing; it offers targeted validation, but it could miss some edge situations or interactions between modules. In order to overcome this problem and ensure proper coverage, the testing team must collaborate and prepare ahead. It can also be tedious to keep test scripts for smoke and sanity testing up-to-date, particularly when the program changes. To overcome this obstacle and simplify testing, it is recommended to invest in strong testing tools and provide ongoing training in the form of tutorials.
In order to ensure the delivery of dependable and strong software products, it is essential to strike a balance between the benefits of smoke testing and sanity testing and the necessity for complete testing.
With feature flags at your side, you can conquer the obstacles of sanity and smoke testing. By regulating the deployment of new features in real-time production environments, feature flags encourage safer testing techniques. They also provide teams the option to enable or prevent code modifications that might have detrimental consequences.
Summing Up
It is critical to conduct software testing using approaches such as sanity testing and smoke testing to guarantee the functioning and quality of software products. Sanity testing dives deeper into certain functionalities affected by recent modifications, providing more targeted validation, in contrast to smoke testing's rapid evaluation of important functionalities, which allows for efficient workflow and fast feedback.
However, both approaches, aren't without their problems, such as the time-consuming need to maintain test scripts or the risk of missing flaws. In order to overcome these obstacles and ensure the delivery of reliable, high-quality software builds, testing teams can utilize automation technologies, follow tutorials, and work together continuously.