Exploratory testing

Exploring the application, understanding how each feature works, and based on understanding testing the whole application – It is exploratory testing. Exploratory testing needs a tester to listen, read, think, and report, effectively and rigorously.

There might be some gaps with the business requirements built in the system; so, we need to explore the application ourselves to understand the requirements when we test it.

In this article, we will cover the following topics:

  1. How to do exploratory testing?
  2. When should we do exploratory testing?
  3. Why should we do exploratory testing?
  4. Drawbacks of exploratory testing.
  5. How is exploratory testing managed?
  6. Real-time example

How to do exploratory testing?

  • Test engineers try to enter all the possible inputs for each field.
  • Test engineer will check dataflow by doing integration testing.
  • Test engineer will try to cover all end-to-end scenarios by doing system testing.

When do we do Exploratory testing?

  • No requirements
  • No sufficient time for end-to-end testing
  • Unable to understand the requirement.
  • To identify the untested bugs of the product.
  • To get more information about the product

Why should we do Exploratory Testing?

  • We can catch all possible blockers and critical defects.
  • It becomes a powerful way to understand the application in a better manner, build better functional tests and finally enhance the quality of the application.
  • Customer will not be blocked.

Drawbacks of Exploratory testing:

  • Test engineers might misunderstand the feature as a defect.
  • Test engineers might misunderstand the defect as a feature.
  • If a feature is missing, the test engineer will never get to know that the feature is really missing.

How is exploratory testing managed?

  • Use session-based management technique.
  • An uninterrupted period of time-boxed testing (usually 60-120 minutes)

Test sessions include the following:

  • Survey Session
  • Analysis Session
  • Deep Coverage

Real-time example using TestRail:

TestRail has a robust solution for test case design. It allows for formal test step cases, text-based cases, or exploratory charter design. This flexibility allows test designers to have the ability to choose the test design strategy that fits the testing need at hand.

An example of TestRail’s exploratory test charter template.

  1. Login into your account in test rail

https://test.testrail.io/index.php?/auth/login

2. Add the test cases and choose the template as “Exploratory session” and also add some estimation.

3. Start a run and add the result.

Mission – Purpose of the Exploratory session.

Goal      – Specific areas of validation.

Exploratory testing using charters is ideal in an agile development environment given the quick delivery timelines.

Summary:

Exploratory testing should be a significant part of any team approach to overall quality strategy. If project requirements are unstable, exploratory testing is perfect for testing new requirements within limited timeframes. This is because the emphasis here is on quick and usable results.  It leverages testers’ skills and experience and frequently find bugs before customers find them. It is a supplement to, rather than a replacement of the manual, automated, performance, and load tests.

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