Understanding Smoke & Sanity Tests: A Practical Guide
Smoke testing and sanity testing serve distinct purposes in the QA process. Smoke tests provide a high-level check to verify the overall stability of a software build, ensuring that critical functionalities are working. In contrast, sanity tests are more focused, validating specific areas of functionality after recent changes or bug fixes. While smoke tests act as the first gatekeeper for build acceptance, sanity tests confirm the accuracy of targeted updates. Use smoke tests for initial validation and sanity tests for deeper, change-specific checks.