Mar 24
Smoke Test Vs Sanity Test — Breakdown And Comparison
Table of content:
- What is Smoke Testing?
- What is Sanity Testing?
- Difference Between Smoke and Sanity Testing
While writing a basic computer program with only one source code file, all you have to do is compile and link that one file to get an executable file. This is a relatively straightforward procedure.
But what about big projects that consist of hundreds of source code files? It’s a difficult and time-consuming operation to combine all of them and turn these source files into an executable application inside the project.
For this purpose, you’ll need to use a software called “build”, and the procedure is known as “Software Build”.
Smoke testing and sanity testing are both software testing techniques, that are performed after the Software Build process, to discover the bugs and faults in the integration of modules. Both types of testing are carried out in various ways at different stages of the testing cycle.
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What is Smoke Testing?
Smoke testing is a software testing technique used after the process of software build to ensure that the software’s functions are working properly. The goal is not to do exhaustive testing, but to ensure that the system’s core and critical functionalities are functioning properly.
It is run by the development team before any functional or regression tests are run in detail. The basic goal of smoke testing is to reject a software application that has flaws so that the QA team doesn’t involve wastage of time evaluating defective software. The test cases in Smoke Testing were chosen to cover the system’s most significant feature or component.
A typical smoke test may include things like verifying that the program launches correctly, checking that the Graphic User Interface (GUI) is responsive, and so on.
Smoke testing is sometimes known as Build Verification testing or Tester acceptance testing.
What is Sanity Testing?
Sanity refers to “logic” here. Sanity testing is a type of software testing that is done after receiving a stable build software with just a minor code or feature modifications to ensure that the defects have been resolved and that no new issues have arisen as a result of the changes.
The goal is “not” to completely test the new feature but to assess whether the developer used some logic when creating the product. For example, if the answer of your scientific calculator is 2 + 2 = 5! Then there’s no use in putting complex features like trigonometry or probability to the test.
In other words, the objective is to see if the proposed feature performs as intended. If the sanity test fails, the software build process gets rejected, to save time and money on more software that has passed the sanity test.
Important points*
- Sanity and Smoke testing are two methods for avoiding wastage of time and effort by identifying whether an application is too defective to be tested thoroughly.
- A build verification test is a term for a smoke testing run on a specific build.
- Smoke and sanity tests can be done manually or with the help of an automation tool. When using automated tools, the tests are frequently started by the same process that creates the build.
- When testing team runs both Sanity and Smoke Tests in the software build, they would do Smoke tests first, followed by Sanity Testing.
- Smoke testing is applied generally using an automation tool followed by scheduling the smoke suite as soon as a new build is created.
NOTE — When the application is ready to deliver to staging or pre-production environments, the development team will know quickly whether the latest version of their application is ready for further QA and review. This is done by a smoke test suite, which combines all the smoke tests into a small suite of tests.
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Difference Between Smoke and Sanity Testing
What is the difference between smoke and sanity testing? When the smoke and Sanity testing is done?
These would be some questions that arose in your mind. Let’s find out.
BasisSmoke TestingSanity TestingMeaningIt is a wide testing technique in which all aspects of the application are examined.It’s a type of testing that focuses on certain aspects of the application.MeasuresIt performs rigorous testing to determine the system’s stability and basic functionality.It is deep testing that performs rigorous testing to determine the system’s logic.TechniqueManual or automated smoke testing is available.Sanity testing is possible without the use of scripts or test cases like functional testing.ExecutionBoth testers and development team are involved in this processIt is carried out solely by testers.PurposeTesting is carried out without going into great detail, but when it is necessary, the tester must delve into great detail.Sanity testing does not need a thorough examination of the application.Performed atThe first test conducted on the initial build is smoke testing.When the build is rather reliable, sanity testing is undertaken.Documentation DocumentedNon documentedUseIt is planned testing used to test the application’s end-to-end functionality.Only modified or defect-free functionality are tested using it.SubsetIt is a subset of acceptance testing.It is a subset of regression testing.
- The purpose of smoke testing is to ensure “stability,” but the goal of sanity testing is to verify “rationality.”
- Developer teams and testers both do smoke testing, sanity testing is performed by testers only.
- Sanity Testing evaluates new functionalities, whereas Smoke Testing tests the system’s critical functionalities only.
- Acceptance testing includes smoke testing, whereas regression testing refers to sanity testing.
- Sanity testing is among the types of testing which are not documented or programmed, unlike smoke testing.
- Sanity testing exercises only a single component, whereas smoke testing exercises the complete system from start to finish.
- Sanity testing is regarded as narrow and depth testing. It is about detailed testing on a few highly critical features, whereas smoke testing is considered broad and shallow testing, but tests on all relevant aspects.
- Development team uses Smoke testing as soon as the build is installed, whereas sanity testing takes place once the problem fixes are completed.
Summing Up…
Most quality assurance and project teams in diverse software development projects follow these basic software testing ideas. Both smoke testing and sanity testing may be done manually or with the help of automated software. When automation tools are utilised, tests are launched frequently to construct the build.
Sanity testing test cases are frequently shared with smoke tests in the software industry to speed up the test execution process of the software products and refuse manual testing. Sanity and smoke testing are two methods for saving testing time and energy by immediately determining whether an application is too damaged to pass any thorough testing.
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