Ensuring Software Health: The Role of Smoke and Sanity Testing in QA

QA plays a crucial role in the overall software development process since it focuses on the functionality and usability of developed products. Smoke testing and sanity testing are two techniques commonly used in QA. These tests are beneficial for quickly identifying issues and ensuring that the software functions well as it is being built. Let’s learn about them.

How Smoke Testing Works?

Smoke testing is done in the initial stages of the testing process and is sometimes referred to as “build verification testing”, where the primary functionality of the program is checked. A gadget is said to have passed the “smoke test” if it does not explode or “smoke” when switched on. This term originated from hardware testing. In software terms, it implies ensuring the application does not freeze or contain significant issues after a new build.

Purpose:

• Smoke testing verifies that the basic functionality of the software works. This is the initial level of testing that the app should pass before going to other levels of testing.
• It aids in identifying critical issues during the early stages of the development phase to minimise costs.
• It saves you from having to take a second look at a build, which, in essence, has some fundamental issues.

Understanding Sanity Tests

This form of testing is very specialised, and the scope is much narrower. It also verifies that some functions are workable after changes, such as bug fixes or adding new features. Sanity testing is used in contrast to smoke tests, which are general and rudimentary, while sanity tests are specific and thorough. It assures a feature or bug fix behaves as it is intended without the need for a lot of testing.

Purpose:

• Sanity testing ensures that specific changes or fixes functions without testing numerous detailed aspects. This is almost real-time, which helps check tiny differences and is less time-consuming than other methods.
•  It only looks at the recently updated parts; therefore, the evaluation is quicker and more precise.
• Testing is done to confirm that a program is still stable after minor modifications have been made or after removing or correcting a program bug.

Difference Between Smoke and Sanity Tests:

Scope: Smoke testing looks broadly at the whole application, while logic testing focuses on specific recently changed areas.

Depth: Smoke tests are only about ensuring the most basic features work. Sanity testing goes deeper and looks at specific tasks or fixes.

Objective: The main point of smoke testing is to decide whether a build is good or bad. On the other hand, Sanity testing checks to see if specific changes or bug fixes work.

How important it is in QA

• These tests find problems early, so they don’t have to be fixed later, which can be expensive and take time.
• The programme stays stable and reliable through regular “smoke and sanity tests.”
• Quick tests help you make decisions quicker and ensure that only stable builds move on to more in-depth testing steps.

Real Life Example 

Example 1: An e-commerce app

A business that sells things online releases a new version of its website every two weeks. They do smoke tests to ensure that important features like logging in as a user, searching for products, and processing payments work correctly before running detailed regression tests. They move on to more thorough tests if the smoke test returns positive.

Example 2: Making mobile apps

The payment method has a bug fixed by a team that makes mobile apps. They do sanity tests to ensure the payment process works as expected and the bug fix works. By focusing on the exact area the fix affects, they can quickly be sure the problem is fixed without doing a full failure test.

Takeaway

Essential parts of the QA process are smoke and sanity tests. Smoke testing ensures that essential functions work, while sanity testing looks more closely at certain areas. Together, they help keep software of high quality by finding problems early and ensuring that changes don’t break things already working. If these tests are used correctly, software development can be safer, more reliable, and more efficient.

Adding smoke and sanity testing to your QA process will help you find bugs faster, save time and money, and ultimately give your people a better product.