What is sanity testing?
Sanity testing is a narrow check that a specific change or bug fix works as intended before wider testing.
Sanity testing focuses on the area that just changed. After a fix or small feature, a tester or automated check confirms that the change does what it should and has not obviously broken its immediate surroundings.
It is narrower than regression testing and more targeted than smoke testing, and it is often unscripted when done by hand.
Example
A developer fixes a bug where discount codes were case-sensitive. A sanity test applies the code in upper and lower case and checks the total before the full regression suite runs.
Best practices
- Scope the check to the changed feature
- Confirm the original bug no longer reproduces
- Check the nearest related behaviour
- Follow with a regression run before release
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