Smoke Testing - Types, Process, Tools & More!

Smoke testing has an important role in software development and testing as it is focused on working on the software build. It ensures that the software builds are working as expected. It also ensures whether the crucial functions of the written program are working as expected or not. 

Smoke testing does the initial testing of the product and fixes the issues accordingly, before the product is tested through the other software testing phases. In this article, you will get to know the types of smoke testing along with the process and tools for conducting it.

What is smoke testing?

It is a testing method that verifies whether the deployed software build is stable or not. It provides a sort of confirmation to the QA teams so that they can proceed with further phases of testing. It also makes sure whether the build that has been received from the development team functions properly or not. The most crucial functions of a product or application are tested by this method.

Types of smoke testing:

1. Manual smoke testing: Each initial build is tested using this method. It also checks whether the existing builds have been added up with any new features or not. The test scripts need to be modified and updated based on each test environment. In certain scenarios, entirely new scripts need to be created.

2. Automated smoke testing: Batches of initial builds are tested. An automation tool would be ideal for conducting automated smoke testing, especially because there is a limited amount of time before the deployment of the build.

3. Hybrid smoke testing: These test combines the functionalities of both manual and automated smoke testing and thus scale up the overall performance of the testing.

Smoke testing process:

The process of smoke testing comprises four steps as mentioned below:

1. The test cases need to be selected: The specific test cases that are going to run the smoke test need to be selected. When a smoke test is being designed, QA engineers and software developers must know crucial software functions and how best the features can be tested.

2. Smoke tests need to be built: Once the test cases have been identified, then test scripts need to be written to test them. A single script can be used for smoke tests so that flexibility can be increased while the tests are being run.

3. Run smoke tests: Once the smoke test scripts have been created, then after it need to be run on the build to identify any other issues or bugs. Once the tests are completed then the results can be assessed.

4. The bugs need to be fixed accordingly: If any bugs have been identified then they can be fixed accordingly.

Smoke testing tools:

1. TestLink: It is a free, web-based management tool through which test cases and test plans can be drafted by users within a single structured framework. The smoke tests can be planned by this tool as well as the metrics and expectations can be outlined before the smoke testing process is initiated.

2. Jest: It is a JavaScript testing framework through which JavaScript applications are being tested. Smoke tests are written using this tool to make sure that components behave and render correctly.

3. Cypress: Smoke tests can be written by an easy-to-use API that is provided by this tool. Cypress offers interactive test runner, time-travel debugging and real-time reloading.

4. Selenium: Smoke tests are created by this tool wherein interactions are automated with web applications and then crucial functions are verified to know whether it is working as per the expectations or not. Selenium is a popular open-source test automation tool exclusively used for testing web applications.

Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing smoke testing for your specific project, then do get connected with a top-notch software testing services company that will provide you with a step-by-step implementation methodology that is precisely in line with your project specific requirements.

About the author: I am a technical content writer focused on writing technology specific articles. I strive to provide well-researched information on the leading market savvy technologies.

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