The main difference between smoke and sanity testing is that the smoke testing involves checking the critical functionalities of the system while the sanity testing involves checking a section of the application to verify that the system works properly after minor changes.
There is a distinct difference between smoke and sanity testing although we tend to use these two terms interchangeably. Smoke testing carries on a series of test cases before the commencement of more rigorous tests. If the tests fail, further testing stops. Moreover, the software build is rejected until passing the smoke test. On the other hand, sanity testing roughly checks the functionalities. It involves determining whether the developer applied some rationality when developing the software.
Key Areas Covered
1. What is Smoke Testing
– Definition, Functionality
2. What is Sanity Testing
– Definition, Functionality
3. What is the Difference Between Smoke and Sanity Testing
– Comparison of Key Differences
Key Terms
Smoke Testing, Sanity Testing
What is Smoke Testing
A software project consists of multiple source code files. Creating an executable program from these source code files is complex and requires more time. Therefore, it is necessary to use build software to create executable programs for a set of source codes. We call this process software build.
Smoke testing is carried on after software build. It ensures that the critical functionalities are working properly. It is performed before detailed functional testing. Smoke testing checks the most important functionalities of the system. Therefore, it is not an exhaustive testing method that covers all test cases. It checks only the crucial functionalities to ensure that the system is working fine.
What is Sanity Testing
Sanity testing checks the minor changes in the code or functionality. It ensures that the bugs are fixed and there are no issues due to the changes. The objective of sanity testing is to discover that the functionalities work roughly as expected. If sanity testing fails, the build is rejected to avoid cost and time-wasting. Thus, this testing does not verify the functionalities thoroughly.
Difference Between Smoke and Sanity Testing
Definition
Smoke testing is a preliminary test which is used to catch the high-level functional errors of an application while sanity testing is a kind of software testing that is performed after receiving a software build with minor changes in code or functionality. Thus, this is the main difference between smoke and sanity testing.
Main Objective
Moreover, the main objective of smoke testing is to verify the stability of the system to carry on more testing while the main objective of sanity testing is to verify the rationality of the system to carry on more testing.
Documentation
Also, documentation is another difference between smoke and sanity testing. Smoke testing involves documentation; however, there is no documentation in sanity testing.
Usage
Besides, smoke testing helps to verify that the main or the critical functionalities of the application are working properly while sanity testing helps to determine whether a particular section of an application still works as expected after a minor change. Hence, this is the difference between smoke and sanity testing in terms of usage.
Conclusion
Software testing is an important phase in the Software Development Life Cycle. It helps to release a working and reliable software to the customer. Furthermore, software testing improves the quality of the product and reduces the overall cost. There are various types of testing and smoke and sanity testing are two of them. The main difference between smoke and sanity testing is that the smoke testing involves checking the critical functionalities of the system while the sanity testing involves checking a section of the application to verify that the system works properly after minor changes.
Reference:
1. “Smoke and Sanity Testing: Software Testing Tutorial”, Guru99, 5 Aug. 2011, Available here.
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1. “36990” (CC0) via Pexels
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