Smoke testing refers to physical tests made to closed systems of pipes to test for leaks. By metaphorical extension, the term is also used for the first test made after assembly or repairs to a system, to provide some assurance that the system under test will not catastrophically fail. After a smoke test proves that "the pipes will not leak, the keys seal properly, the circuit will not burn, or the software will not crash outright," the system is ready for more stressful testing.
The term smoke testing is used in several fields, including electronics, software development, plumbing, woodwind repair, infectious disease control, and the entertainment industry.
Read more about Smoke Testing: History of The Term
Famous quotes containing the words smoke and/or testing:
“As far as I can see, this autumn haze
That spreading in the evening air both ways
Makes the new moon look anything but new
And pours the elm-tree meadow full of blue,
Is all the smoke from one poor house alone....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Bourbon’s the only drink. You can take all that champagne stuff and pour it down the English Channel. Well, why wait 80 years before you can drink the stuff? Great vineyards, huge barrels aging forever, poor little old monks running around testing it, just so some woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma can say it tickles her nose.”
—John Michael Hayes (b.1919)