•Development of standardized methods to test cigarette smoke.•Current methods for testing cigarette-smoke constituents.•Current performance standards relevant to regulatory testing of cigarette smoke.•Volatile constituents and tobacco-specific nitrosamines in cigarette smoke.•Developing and implementing more reproducible testing methods for cigarette smoke. This article includes a summary of the development of existing standardized methods to test cigarette smoke, and a review of both the capability of current methods for testing cigarette-smoke constituents and current performance standards relevant to regulatory testing. There is a comparison of the reproducibility of some currently approved methods to determine volatile constituents and tobacco-specific nitrosamines in cigarette smoke with the Horwitz prediction of reproducibility. There is discussion of appropriate activities to support the development and the implementation of more reproducible testing methods and an indication of the tasks that should be prioritized to achieve optimal inter-laboratory agreement of data.