Smoke and Sanity testing are the most misunderstood topics in Software Testing. There is enormous amount of literature on the subject, but most of them are confusing. The following article makes an attempt to address the confusion.
what is a Software Build?
If you are developing a simple computer program which consists of only one source code file, you merely need to compile and link this one file, to produce an executable file. This process is very simple.
Usually this is not the case. A typical Software Project consists of hundreds or even thousands of source code files. Creating an executable program from these source files is a complicated and time-consuming task.
You need to use "build" software to create an executable program and the process is called "Software Build"
what is Smoke Testing?
Smoke Testing is performed after software build to ascertain that the critical functionalities of the program is working fine.It is executed "before" any detailed functional or regression tests are executed on the software build.The purpose is to reject a badly broken application, so that the QA team does not waste time installing and testing the software application.
In Smoke Testing, the test cases chosen cover the most important functionality or component of the system. The objective is not to perform exhaustive testing, but to verify that the critical functionalities of the system is working fine.
For Example a typical smoke test would be - Verify that the application launches successfully, Check that the GUI is responsive ... etc.
what is Sanity Testing?
After receiving a software build, with minor changes in code, or functionality, Sanity testing is performed to ascertain that the bugs have been fixed and no further issues are introduced due to these changes.The goal is to determine that the proposed functionality works roughly as expected. If sanity test fails, the build is rejected to save the time and costs involved in a more rigorous testing.
The objective is "not" to verify thoroughly the new functionality, but to determine that the developer has applied some rationality (sanity) while producing the software. For instance, if your scientific calculator gives the result of 2 + 2 =5! Then, there is no point testing the advanced functionalities like sin 30 + cos 50.
