Exploratory testing is one of the techniques of software testing where framing test cases, devising strategy for conducting tests is at the discretion of the tester himself. Exploratory, as the term implies, is a technique of testing which implies ‘test while you explore’.
Exploratory testing opens the door for testers to apply their acumen in the right direction to indulge and dig out all possible test scenarios/cases so that no scope is left to analyze the system deeply.
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Tips for an Exploratory Tester:
To be efficient enough in the field of exploratory testing, there are some practices that one must adapt in order to be more focused towards attaining the final goals. Following are some of the principles:
- Focus on goals: An indispensable fact to succeed is to stay focused on the goals. Always try and keep the goals aligned with the activities that have been planned to achieve them.
- Plan but do not script tests: It is good to plan out things and make a list. Try and automate tests only wherever appropriate when it seems that the exploratory approach applied should be automated.
- Do not aim for coverage: When performing exploratory test, the focus should be on finding defects or issues within the system and not necessarily a complete test coverage. Therefore, the aim should be to identify the parts of the system that are beyond normal usage pattern.
- More of a skilled activity: Yes, knowledge is one part of the work but the need for exploratory testing is to apply skills that a human possesses. The ability to personalize a system’s functionality is what exploratory testing demands. Hence a tester is expected to view and analyze a certain thing as per his own observation and understanding of a problem.
- Keep clear record of work proceedings: It is a good practice to keep everything documented so that a record for future reference is maintained. A record could be maintained in any of the following format:
- In the form of a test charter document that outlines the objectives and scope of test.
- Enlist the complete list of features that need to be tested.
- The procedure followed to complete the set of test activities.
- List of bugs that were found during testing.
- List of problem areas which might be a matter of concern.
- Overall materials that are used to support testing.
- Exploratory must be coupled with automated testing: Automation aims to check whether the system performs as expected by the development team, as per requirement specifications. Exploratory uses automation when they see that a problem occurs repeatedly. So to ensure that the defect does not pose as a problem again in the functioning of the system.
- Determine the type of exploratory tests that meet the needs: In this we may include performance test, because in performance testing a lot of aspects come to the fore like load test, stress test etc. along with security testing. Performance testing is to check how the system responds to sudden changes or how it reacts to excessive load situations. Exploratory testing must aim at determining at various levels like when the number of users increase, how the database handles such varying amounts of load.
- Balance manual and automation: Well exploratory testing is about equally balancing manual and automation tests. Therefore, identifying the right zone for automating tests becomes a real important factor to fit test criteria in its right places.
- Close association with developers: Well definitely, testers must be consistently in touch with the developers to keep them informed about what defects were discovered during the process of exploratory test. This creates a scope for the developers to deal with defects at early stages than things getting delayed and piled up at some later stage. Then that becomes really complex to deal with.
Conclusion:
Exploratory testing must not be misinterpreted as a certain type of testing rather it takes a lot of testing aspects in its purview. Exploratory testing is one of its kind and does not specifically rely on one single methodology.
Hence the idea is – “the more you explore, the more you reveal.”