Smoke Testing Criticality for SDETs

2 min readJul 18, 2024

Q) If Smoke Tests fail then how do you deal with such Testing further..?

1) Objective of Automated Smoke Tests:

They are essential for verifying the basic health of an application after deployment.

Serve as a first step towards the goal of “push to prod on each code commit.”

2) Binary Outcome:

Smoke tests usually result in a binary outcome: pass or fail.

Failure triggers alerts indicating a critical issue that renders further testing unnecessary.

3) Test Suite Characteristics:

Broad, Shallow, and Fast: Tests should cover as many subsystems as possible within a short time frame.

Broadness ensures coverage of multiple application areas, while shallowness provides a basic health check.

Speed is crucial for quick feedback on the deployment’s health.

4) Business Criticality:

Not all subsystems hold the same business importance.

Example: In e-commerce, credit card payment functionality is more critical than wishlist creation.

5) Value of Further Testing:
Dependent on the severity and impact of failures.

Testing might not be worthwhile if core features are broken, but investigation into the cause is crucial.

6) Context Matters:

Some failures might indicate major issues in one subsystem but leave others unaffected.

Deeper testing of unaffected areas might still be valuable.

Teams should adapt their approach based on the specific needs and risks of their project.

7) Customisation of Smoke Tests:

Organisations can customise their smoke test suites according to their priorities and objectives.

Not all failures need to be treated as showstoppers; each organisation can define their own criteria for handling failures.

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Written by Japneet Sachdeva