Smoke Signals: A Comprehensive Guide to Smoke Testing in Software Development

Smoke testing is an initial pass to evaluate basic functionality and stability in software development after new builds or code changes. It focuses on critical test cases and workflows to verify that the major functions of the software are operating as expected. The goal is to determine if the build is stable enough to proceed with more in-depth testing. Smoke tests can be functional, non-functional, or integration-based depending on the stage of software development and release testing objectives. Automating smoke tests provides several benefits such as increased speed, improved consistency, enhanced coverage, earlier defect detection, and reduced costs. Key metrics to track include time to execute, defects detected, test coverage, and test pass percentage.