Smoke Testing

A smoke test is just a load test configured for minimal load.

a smoke test may address basic questions like "does the program run?", "does the user interface open?", or "does clicking the main button do anything?"

  • "smoke tests broadly cover product features in a limited time. If key features don't work or if key bugs haven't yet been fixed, your team won't waste further time installing or testing"

The phrase smoke test comes from electronic hardware testing. You plug in a new board and turn on the power. If you see smoke coming from the board, turn off the power. You don't have to do any more testing.

The process of smoke testing aims to determine whether the application is so badly broken as to make further immediate testing unnecessary.

  • Therefore, smoke tests should run quickly, giving benefits of faster feedback

A daily build and smoke test is among industry best practices

Smoke tests can be functional tests or unit tests.


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