Smoke testing vs Sanity testing

The main difference between smoke testing vs sanity testing is that smoke testing is a software testing process that examines the working of all the critical functionalities of the software before it moves to the functional testing stage. On the other hand, sanity testing is a software testing process that examines bug fixes and new functionalities added to the build after doing some functionality or coding changes.

This article will explore smoke testing vs sanity testing in great detail. But, before we explore smoke testing vs sanity testing in depth, let’s go through the list of topics listed under the table of contents (TOC) we will cover in this article.

Table of contents (TOC)

• Smoke testing vs sanity testing
• What is smoke testing?
• Advantages of smoke testing
• What is sanity testing?
• Advantages of sanity testing
• Key differences between smoke testing vs sanity testing
• Conclusion

Smoke testing vs sanity testing 

For a better understanding, let’s explore the difference between smoke testing vs sanity testing in a tabular format:

Benchmark	Smoke testing	Sanity testing
It aims to test	Critical functionalities of the software	New functionalities and to check whether bugs have been fixed or not.
Verifies the	Stability of the software	Rationality of the system
Testing is done by both testers and developers	Yes	No. Testers only do it.
Is it documented or scripted?	Yes	No
It is a subset of	Acceptance testing	Regression testing
It examines	The entire system from end to end	A particular part of the software
It is performed on the	Initial build	Stable build
Testing type	Elaborate and planned testing	Wide and shallow testing
Can it be done with the help of automation tools?	Yes	No. It is only done manually.

You can also explore courses related to software testing, such as:

Software Engineer Online Courses & Certifications	Free Software Engineer Courses Online
Smoke Testing Online Courses	Sanity Testing Online Courses

What is smoke testing? 

Smoke testing definition: Smoke testing is a software testing procedure used to determine whether the developed software is so severely broken that further testing is unnecessary.

Smoke testing, in layman’s terms, is a process that examines the operation of all critical software functionalities and confirms that there are no showstoppers in the software build that would make further testing unnecessary. Some types of testing are referred to as “Confidence Testing” or “Build Verification Testing.”

Smoke testing is performed on initial builds by developers and testers before releasing those builds for extensive testing, such as functional testing, unit testing, or regression testing. The primary goal of smoke testing is to reject flawed software programs so that the quality assurance (QA) team does not waste resources and energy evaluating defective software.

Advantages of smoke testing

Some of the advantages of smoke testing are:

• Consists of simple steps that make it simple to carry out.
• Reduces the likelihood of failure and improves system quality
• Minimizes integration risks by assisting in the early detection of defects
• Reduces testing effort and time while increasing accessibility to progress
• Allows for the detection and correction of critical errors

What is sanity testing?

Sanity testing: Sanity testing is a software testing procedure that ensures that the build received after minor changes in functionality or coding does not consist of any bugs or functional issues.

Sanity testing is generally done to check that there is no effect on the software’s functionality or the program after making specific changes in the build’s code. If the old build has any bugs, those will be fixed, and after that, testers will perform sanity testing in order to confirm that there are no bug fixes left. It also confirms that the new functionality that has been added or was supposed to be added is working as intended.

Sanity tests also ensure that there are no or zero effects on other functionalities of the software or program because of the implemented changes. If the sanity test fails, the build is rejected to save time and money on more thorough testing.

Advantages of sanity testing

Some of the advantages of sanity testing are:

• Aids in the discovery of related and missing objects
• Aids in the rapid detection of problems with basic functionality
• Requires significantly less time as there is no need for any documentation
• Aims to validate the application’s functionality rather than thorough testing

Key differences between smoke testing vs sanity testing

Here are the key differences between smoke testing vs sanity testing:

• Smoke testing is documented but its not the case with sanity testing
• Both developers and testers can do smoke testing; on the other hand, testers can only do sanity testing.
• Sanity testing has to be performed manually , whereas, smoke testing can be automated with the help of tools.
• Sanity testing is a subset of the regression testing, whereas smoke testing is a subset of the acceptance testing.
• Sanity testing examines the relationality of the software or the program, whereas smoke testing examines stability of the software.
• Smoke testing ensures that the acute functionalities of the program is working fine, whereas, sanity testing ensures that the bugs have been fixed after the build.

Conclusion

Due to the requirement, you might have to choose between smoke testing vs sanity testing. Hence it is essential to remember the core objective behind both types of testing. Smoke testing ensures that the program’s acute functionalities are working correctly, and sanity testing ensures that bugs have been fixed after the build, and there are no functionality issues that may have arisen due to the bug fix.

If you have any queries related to smoke testing vs sanity testing, please feel free to drop your queries in the comment box. We will be happy to help!