Know It All About Smoke Testing

Software Quality Assurance Testing has become a highly critical practice to determine the goodness of a developed software as a whole. As to what testing is, it is the process of identification and elimination of software bugs while simultaneously ensuring proper software quality at the same time. 

Many levels come together for proper testing and finalizing the changes before a product gets released into the market. With the right levels of testing, software testing allows companies to build trust with their clients. Without the right testing procedures in place, unearthing bugs in the software can prove to be very difficult and time-consuming.

You will be surprised to hear that most of the software glitches can be eradicated right in the preliminary stages only, by identifying their issues early on. Among these early testing methods, smoke testing is one of the best methods for the early identification of bugs strategically. 

Read on to find out all that’s to know about Smoke Testing further on.

What is Smoke Testing in Software Quality Assurance?

Smoke testing in software quality assurance is a type of software testing where it assists in verifying if the software builds that has been deployed displays stability or not. It’s a step before the actual software testing and provides the QA team with a good enough idea about whether to proceed ahead with further testing procedures or not. 

After a smoke test verifies the software build, it is then considered ready for further development and testing. A good software build consists of data files, libraries, various engineering components, along with the different modules.

To consider all these functions, we take a look at some of the important features of Smoke Testing.

Smoke Testing- Features

There are a plethora of unique features that make Smoke Testing different from other kinds of testing. Mentioned below are some of the features of Smoke Testing- 

- Smoke Testing is also known as Build Verification Testing, where a build is verified through proper feature testing and then sent ahead for further testing based on observations. 
- Smoke Tests are flexible and can be both- automated as well as manual, depending on the requirements of testing.
- Smoke Tests apply to all kinds of testing phases, like system testing, integration testing, acceptance testing, and more.

The number of test cases in Smoke Testing is very limited. 

The Utility of Smoke Testing 

Software testing and quality assurance services employ smoke testing whenever there’s a need for new functionalities in an existing software build that’s been deployed in a QA ecosystem. This ensures that everything is working smoothly and every functionality is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. 

In the method of smoke testing, the development team first deploys the build to the QA. After that, the data subsets are identified, on which the testers then execute test cases upon the build. The QA team then runs app tests on the discovered functionalities, where the purpose of these test cases is to identify any errors residing within the build. 

If errors are discovered within the build during these tests, the system is handed over back to the development team. And when there’s any kind of change in the build, then Smoke Testing is introduced to the fore. 

Smoke Testing- Importance

Smoke Testing essays a very crucial role in the process of software development because it ensures that the system is perfectly suited from the initial stages only. 

We bring you a few reasons why Smoke Testing is important in software testing and quality assurance- 

- Smoke Testing identifies any kind of threats within the build. 
- The process of detection and correction of build defects becomes simple and convenient.
- Because it is done after the build gets released to the QA, the majority of the defects get identified in the initial stages of the software development lifecycle.

Benefits of Smoke Testing

- Improved Effectiveness of QA Team

If your present QA process takes a lot of time by running larger testing platforms, then that can be taken care of with Smoke Testing. The QA team becomes more effective as a result.

- Quicker Elimination of New Bugs

If any bugs are discovered during Smoke Testing, the development team can start working much earlier in detecting bugs and performing proper analysis instead of waiting for the final outcome to arrive from elaborate testing suites. 

- Satisfied & Productive QA Teams

It goes without saying that QA teams will be highly productive and more satisfied as they will be more confident about complex builds to pass through at the time of Smoke Testing. 

Final Words

Finally, it can be safely asserted that Smoke Testing should be implemented on every phase of a build as early defect detection makes the life of QA teams supremely simple. 

With Consagous Technologies and its software testing and quality assurance services, things stay seamless and sophisticated. Connect today!