Apart from similar names, Smoke Test and Sanity Test, both aims at reducing testing efforts. No doubt they are confused for each other.
Smoke Testing
Smoke Testing is the very basic and initial testing activity that verifies if the application/deliverable is testable or not. I read somewhere that “Smoke testing is like General Health Check Up”. It is generally applicable during Integration Testing, System Testing and Acceptance Testing.
Only positive scenarios are validated in Smoke Testing.
Scope – The set of test cases which verifies the functionality on a high level. Some basic scenarios may include:
1. Tester is able to access the application/deliverable.
2. Tester is able to navigate through the application.
3. The user is able to interact with user interface.
Example– Following may be the test cases for a login page:
1. ‘OK’ button is logging in the user on entering some data in user name and password.
2. Cancel button is responding entering some data in user name and password and user remains on the same page.
Type anything in the username and password field and press the OK button, the page should change and the request should have gone to the database to confirm if it is a valid request or not.
Advantages of Smoke testing:
1. Issues that arise due to integration of modules can be found.
2. Issues are found in the early phase of testing.
3. Induces confidence to tester that fixes in the previous builds have not broken major features.
Sanity Testing
Sanity Testing is a part of Regression Testing and it is performed when we do not have enough time for doing testing. I read somewhere that “specialized health check-up”.
Sanity Testing covers both positive and negative scenarios.
Scope – The set of test cases from regression test suite which quickly verified status of the product after they have done changes in the code or there is some controlled code change in a feature to fix any critical issue. Care must be taken care to:
Scope – The set of test cases from regression test suite which quickly verified status of the product after they have done changes in the code or there is some controlled code change in a feature to fix any critical issue. Care must be taken care to:
1. Include only critical test cases in BVT.
2. Only stable test scenarios should be included
3. Test cases included should be sufficient for application test coverage.
Example– Following may be the test cases for a login page:
1. ‘OK’ button is logging in the user on entering valid data in user name and password.
2. ‘OK’ button is not logging in the user on entering invalid data in user name and password.
2. Cancel button is responding entering some data in user name and password and user remains on the same page.
Some of the Test cases for Text editor may be:
1) Creating text file.
2) Writing something into text editor
3) Copy, cut, paste functionality of text editor
4) Opening, saving, deleting text file.
1) Creating text file.
2) Writing something into text editor
3) Copy, cut, paste functionality of text editor
4) Opening, saving, deleting text file.
Advantages of Sanity testing:
1. Makes sure that developers have not defined conflicting or multiple functions or global variable definitions.
2. Helps to identify the dependent missing objects.
To conclude, consider purchasing a vehicle – Car or Bike.
We take it for a test ride and check basic functionalities– Smoke Test
We bring it home, ride it more and check detailed information (Mileage etc) – Sanity Testing