Smoke Testing is directly related to Build Acceptance Testing (BAT).
In BAT, we do the same testing – to verify if the build has not failed and that the system is working fine or not. Sometimes, it happens that when a build is created, some issues get introduced and when it is delivered, the build doesn’t work for the QA.
I would say that BAT is a part of a smoke check because if the system is failing, how can you as a QA accept the build for testing? Not just the functionalities, the system itself has to work before the QA’s proceed with In-Depth Testing.
Smoke Test Cycle
The following flowchart explains the Smoke Testing Cycle.
Once a build is deployed to a QA, the basic cycle followed is that if the smoke test passes, the build is accepted by the QA team for further testing but if it fails, the build is rejected until the reported issues are fixed.