Sanity Testing Vs Smoke Testing 2022

 

Although there are many steps involved in building the perfect software, the most important step is "Testing". Software must be tested to ensure that it is reliable, efficient, and effective. These are the basic concepts of testing. These terms are often used but there are some misconceptions. Let's explore Sanity Testing Vs Smoke Testing and their benefits.

Before we discuss Sanity Testing Vs Smoke Testing let's first define what sanity testing is.

What is Sanity Testing?

Let's start by understanding software build in order to understand sanity tests. Software projects often contain thousands of source code files. It can be difficult and time-consuming to create an executable software program from these source codes files. Software Build is the process of creating executable programs.

This is done to verify that new module additions to an already existing software build work as expected. It can then be passed to the next level. This is a subset in regression testing that evaluates the quality and quantity of regressions to the software.

Sanity testing's main purpose is to ensure that any proposed changes or functionality work as planned. Even if there are only minor changes to the code, the Sanity Test further verifies that the build can be tested seamlessly. If the test fails, however, the testing team rejects it, saving both money and time.

After the smoke test is cleared and approved by the Quality Assurance group, sanity testing can be performed. This testing focuses on the functionalities of the application and not the details. The test cases that are used to execute sanity tests for modules, functionality, or the entire system are carefully selected so they only cover the most important parts. It is therefore a broad but shallow test.

Let's take the example of an ecommerce project that includes modules such as the login page, the homepage, user profile page, new users creation, and the user profile page. The login page's password field does not accept more than four characters. This is contrary to the requirement. The testing team reports the defect to the development team. They resolve the issue and pass it back. 

The testing team would verify that the changes made are correct and not affect other functionalities. The functionality exists to change the password from the user profile page. To ensure that checks are successful, the sanity test would have to validate both login page and user profile pages. When immediate production deployment is required, such as for a critical bug fix, sanity tests are usually performed.

What is Smoke Testing?

Smoke testing is performed after software has been built in the early stages. This allows for the identification of any potential problems in the software. This testing is done to ensure that the program's core functions work together and smoothly. Similar testing is done on hardware devices to make sure they don't emit smoke when they are induced with power. The smoke test is thus named. It is a subset in acceptance testing and is usually used in tester acceptance tests, system testing, integration testing.

Smoke testing is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to identify errors in the core software. This test detects and eliminates errors at the beginning of the SDLC so that there are no wasted efforts in the latter stages. Smoke testing has the main advantage of detecting integration issues and other errors early on, saving time and allowing for better decision making.

A smoke test might answer simple questions such as "does it run?" and "is the user interface accessible?" This test will fail, so there is no point in doing any other tests. The team will not waste time testing or installing new products. Smoke tests cover product features in a short time. These tests are faster and give quicker feedback than more complex test suites, which would naturally take much longer.

You can either manually perform a smoke test or use automated tools. Automated smoke tests will often initiate testing. Automating the test run speeds up your ability to get immediate feedback and take action.

Sanity Testing vs Smoke Testing: What are the differences, what it is, applications, and benefits of each?

What is Sanity Testing?What is Smoke Testing? Smoke Testing

Although there are many steps involved in building the perfect software, the most important step is "Testing". Software must be tested to ensure that it is reliable, efficient, and effective. These are the basic concepts of testing. These terms are often used but there are some misperceptions. Let's explore Sanity Testing Vs Smoke Testing and their benefits.

Before we discuss Sanity Testing Vs Smoke Testing let's first define what sanity testing is.

What is Sanity Testing?

Let's start by understanding software build in order to understand sanity tests. Software projects often contain thousands of source code files. It can be difficult and time-consuming to create an executable software program from these source codes files. Software Build is the process of creating executable programs.

This is done to verify that new module additions to an already existing software build work as expected. It can then be passed to the next level. This is a subset in regression testing that evaluates the quality and quantity of regressions to the software.

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Sanity testing's main purpose is to ensure that any proposed changes or functionality work as planned. Even if there are only minor changes to the code, the Sanity Test further verifies that the build can be tested seamlessly. If the test fails, however, the testing team rejects it, saving both money and time.

After the smoke test is cleared and approved by the Quality Assurance group, sanity testing can be performed. This testing focuses on the functionalities of the application and not the details. The test cases that are used to execute sanity tests for modules, functionality, or the entire system are carefully selected so they only cover the most important parts. It is therefore a broad but shallow test.

Let's take the example of an ecommerce project that includes modules such as the login page, the homepage, user profile page, new users creation, and the user profile page. The login page's password field does not accept more than four characters. This is contrary to the requirement. The testing team reports the defect to the development team. They resolve the issue and pass it back.

Let's now understand the difference between smoke and sanity testing.

What is Smoke Testing?

Smoke testing is performed after a software has been built in the early stages. This allows for the identification of any potential problems in the software. This testing is done to ensure that the program's core functions work together and smoothly. Similar testing is done on hardware devices to make sure they don't emit smoke when they are plugged into a power source. The smoke test is thus named. It is a subset in acceptance testing and is usually used in tester acceptance tests, system testing, integration testing.

Smoke testing is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to identify errors in the core software. This test detects and eliminates errors at the beginning of the SDLC so that there are no wasted efforts in the latter stages. Smoke testing has the main advantage of detecting integration issues and other errors early on, saving time and allowing for better decision making.

A smoke test might answer simple questions such as "does it run?" and "is the user interface accessible?" This test will fail, so there is no point in doing any other tests. The team will not waste time testing or installing new products. Smoke tests cover the majority of product features in a short time. These tests are faster and give quicker feedback than more complex test suites, which would naturally take much longer.

You can either manually perform a smoke test or use automated tools. Automated smoke tests will often initiate testing. Automating the test run speeds up your ability to get immediate feedback and take action.

We know what sanity means, so let us help you understand the difference between smoke and sanity testing.

Both smoke and sanity testing are quick in checking the core functionality of the code. They also check eligibility for further tests. While smoke testing is able to verify that program's core functionalities are functioning properly, sanity testing confirms that the functionality proposed by the developer works as intended.

We often get confused between smoke testing or sanity testing. Let's clarify this confusion by examining the differences between these two testing methods.

·      The purpose of smoke testing is to confirm stability; Sanity testing is designed to verify rationality.

·      Software developers or testers perform smoke testing. However, testers do sanity testing alone.

·      Smoke testing is used to validate the critical functionality of a system. Sanity testing, on the other hand, verifies new functionality like bug fixes.

·      Acceptance testing includes smoke testing. Sanity testing is part of regression testing.

·      While smoke testing can be documented or scripted in some cases, sanity testing cannot.

·      Smoke testing verifies the whole system from beginning to end. However, only one component of the system is verified in sanity testing.

·      The smoke test is used to ensure that critical functions of the program work properly, while sanity testing checks that new functionalities, bugs, and other issues have been addressed.

·      During smoke testing, the software build can be stable or unstable. At the time of sanity test, the software build is stable.

·      Initial builds are subject to smoke testing, while stable builds undergo sanity testing.

·      Basic testing includes smoke testing. Regression testing includes sanity testing.

·      Every new build is subject to smoke testing. However, sanity testing can be done when there isn't enough time to do in-depth testing.

Smoke testing can be compared to a general health checkup. Sanity testing, on the other hand, is more specialized.

You may need to perform both smoke and sanity tests depending on your testing requirements. In these cases, the smoke test must be performed first, then the sanity testing. To speed up test execution, industry uses test cases for sanity tests and test cases to test for smoke testing. The terms are often used interchangeably because of this confusion.

We hope you now have a better understanding of the differences between smoke and sanity testing.