Overview of smoke testing : Characteristics and Advantages

Smoke testing is a quick-and-dirty test that the major functions of a piece of software work without bothering with finer details.
Smoke testing is used when the product is new. Smoke testing is run when the build is received to check if the build is stable. A smoke test is a series of test cases that are run prior to commencing with full-scale testing of an application. It is a non-exhaustive kind of testing.
A smoke test is used as an acceptance test prior to introducing a new build to the main testing process, i.e. before integration or regression.

Characteristics of Smoke Testing
- A smoke test is scripted, either using a written set of tests or an automated test.
- A Smoke test is designed to touch every part of the application in a cursory way.
- It is shallow and wide.
- Smoke testing is conducted to ensure whether the most crucial functions of a program are working, but not bothering with finer details.
- Smoke Testing is applicable when new components gets added and they are integrated with the existing code.
- It ensures that the build is not broken.
- They are also useful for verifying a build is ready to send to test.
- Smoke tests are not substitute for actual functional testing.

Advantages of Smoke Testing
- The integration problems reduces when smoke testing is done at various stages.
- A properly designed smoke test is capable of detecting problems at an early stage.
- If the major problem is detected at an early stage, it saves time and cost.