Hey there! This guide will provide you with a friendly overview of an important yet often misunderstood concept called sanity testing. I‘ll explain what exactly sanity testing is, when it should be used, how it complements other testing methods, and best practices to apply it to your projects. My goal is to equip you to immediately leverage sanity checking techniques for better software quality through fail-fast defect feedback. Let‘s get started!
What is Sanity Testing and Why Use It?
Sanity testing is a basic acceptance check that quickly validates newly created software builds contain no outrageous crashing defects before more extensive testing occurs. As the name suggests, sanity checking aims to determine if a system is rational enough to test further or it requires debugging.
The main reasons development teams perform sanity testing include:
- Catching catastrophic software failures early prevents wasted downstream testing effort on unusable code. Research indicates failing fast can improve overall quality efficiency 40-50%.
- Providing rapid feedback on priority user scenarios helps guide developers to address relevant defects sooner rather than later.
- Sanity testing flexible functionality likely affected by recent code changes reduces likelihood of unexpected regression issues.
- Subjecting builds to quick ad-hoc exploratory sanity tests complements more rigid testing methods later on for balanced coverage.
- Enabling preliminary testing participation across roles like product managers expands perspective diversity on what constitutes key scenarios.
As you‘ll see, conducting routine sanity checks at the right times is crucial for releasing higher quality software through early insight into build readiness.
When Should You Perform Sanity Testing?
Sanity tests are executed as the very first acceptance checks immediately after developers complete new builds. View sanity testing as the initial line of defense against catastrophic defects before investing additional testing effort.
You should also sanity test bug fixes quickly after resolution to prevent later surprises. Basically any time code changes could introduce regressions, some quick sanity checking helps determine next steps:
- Immediately on new builds from development
- Rapidly on hotfixes for critical defects
- Whenever major functionality gets added or updated
- On integrations between updated systems
Think of sanity testing as validating build rationality early on while smoke testing focuses more on stability and regression testing covers comprehensive functionality validation. You‘ll likely leverage all these techniques together for balanced testing coverage.
Examples of Sanity Tests
Since sanity checks are flexible and depend on context, specific tests will vary. But some common examples include:
User Interface Checks
- Quickly click around to confirm UI elements like main menus, forms and buttons still render correctly.
- Scroll through a couple screens to make sure fonts, colors, and branding appear as expected.
- Attempt invalid password a few times to check reset workflow functions.
Core Workflow Checks
- Walk through 2-3 happy path user journeys end-to-end in the system.
- Run through just the critical steps of key processes to validate major logic.
- Check that notifications and approvals trigger properly within workflows.
Data Integrity Checks
- Query different tables to make sure expected test records still exist.
- Add, edit and delete a handful of entries to confirm basic data changes commit.
- Spot check record counts to help identify missing table populations.
Reporting Checks
- Run 1-2 commonly used dashboards or canned reports.
- Verify totals or top 10 lists match expected demo dataset values.
- Check filters and custom segments display report data properly.
API Integration Checks
- Send an API request and validate expected system responses.
- Pass a couple payloads between connected services to check mappings.
- Monitor asynchronous tasks for expected completion statuses.
The key is targeting major areas prone to regression with 10-15 minutes of informal, free-form testing. Then assess if issues seem substantial enough to require fixing before extended testing.
The Pros and Cons of Sanity Testing
Conducting quick sanity checks offers several benefits:
Speed – No burden of documentation overhead or script maintenance.
Early insight – Fail potentially unusable builds fast before wasted effort.
Easy startup – Anyone can sanity test regardless of specialized skills.
Guided efforts – Rapid feedback focuses debugging priorities.
Flexible – Adapt exploratory sanity testing to any product.
However, by design sanity testing does not cover end-to-end functionality deeply given its narrow scope. Limitations include:
Limited coverage – Superficial checks may miss unexpected issues.
Hard to repeat/report – Lack of logging makes reproducing tricky.
Subjective pass/fail – Rationality metrics are qualitative human judgments.
Not comprehensive -Complements rather than replaces thorough testing.
Understanding these tradeoffs helps you determine when more rigorous regression testing may be warranted beyond sanity checks to confirm releases exhibit no major quality issues.
Comparing Sanity Testing to Other Methods
While related in the broader testing context, sanity testing differs from smoke and regression testing techniques in a few key ways:
| Testing Type | Scope | Focus | Timing | Effort Level |
|-|-|-|-|
| Sanity Testing | Narrow |
| Smoke Testing | Broad |
| Regression Testing | Varies |
Sanity testing rapidly sniffs out catastrophic defects on priority components early on whereas smoke testing more rigorously confirms system stability and integration readiness later.
Regression testing applies extensive assessment across all functionality impacted by code changes at multiple points in delivery lifecycles.
So in summary:
- Leverage sanity testing to quickly fail potentially unstable builds requiring debugging.
- Use smoke testing to thoroughly validate release readiness closer to production.
- Employ regression testing often to systematically confirm new code changes.
Tips for Applying Sanity Testing
Keeping a few best practices in mind helps streamline sanity checking effectiveness:
- Timebox ruthlessly – Limit to 30 minutes max or quality suffers from fatigue.
- Hit different areas – Target riskiest components across apps and data.
- Check frequently – Sanity test all builds as the first quality gate.
- Rotate testers – Involve diverse perspectives on priority flows.
- Raise objective defects – Focus reports on reproducible details for diagnosis.
- Retest fixes quickly – Confirm resolutions before resuming testing.
- Automate cautiously – Script only repeatable checks providing highest value.
While sanity testing does not replace comprehensive assessments, integrating the above tips into development processes lets teams release higher quality software through early feedback on new build readiness for downstream testing.
FAQs About Sanity Testing Concepts
Still have questions about leveraging sanity testing within your projects? Here are answers to some commonly asked questions:
How is sanity testing different than smoke testing?
Sanity testing is narrow yet frequent, validating select components early in development cycles with minimal effort. Smoke testing is broader, more rigorous confirmation of end-to-end system stability closer to release.
What exactly makes a build pass or fail a sanity check?
There are no hard pass/fail criteria – the goal is determining if defects seem "showstopper" enough to warrant addressing immediately or if testing can proceed. It‘s a quick human judgement call based on severity.
Why bother sanity testing if end users won‘t run into those issues anyway?
Major crashing defects that escape to production, even from unused paths, indicate larger underlying quality culture issues that erode confidence. Failing fast prevents wasted downstream efforts that inflate costs.
Who specifically should perform sanity testing?
Rotate a variety of roles like developers, testers, product managers, support, and even real users. Different perspectives provide better coverage of sanity test scenarios.
I hope these sanity testing tips help you release higher quality software! Let me know if you have any other questions.
