Exploratory Testing is a type of software testing in which the tester is free to select any possible methodology to test the software. It is an unscripted approach to software testing. In exploratory testing, software developers use their personal learning, knowledge, skills, and abilities to test the software developed by themselves. Exploratory testing checks the functionality and operations of the software as well as identify the functional and technical faults in it. The aim of exploratory testing is to optimize and improve the software in every possible way. The exploratory testing technique combines the experience of testers with a structured approach to testing. It is often performed as a black box testing technique. 4 Exploratory testing is an unscripted testing technique.
Why use Exploratory Testing?
Below are some of the reasons for using exploratory testing:
- Random and unstructured testing: Exploratory testing is unstructured in nature and thus can help to reveal bugs that would of undiscovered during structured phases of testing.
- Testers can play around with user stories: With exploratory testing, testers can annotate defects, add assertions, and voice memos and in this way, the user story is converted to a test case.
- Facilitate agile workflow: Exploratory testing helps formalize the findings and document them automatically. Everyone can participate in exploratory testing with the help of visual feedback thus enabling the team to adapt to changes quickly and facilitating agile workflow.
- Reinforce traditional testing process: Using tools for automated test case documentation testers can convert exploratory testing sequences into functional test scripts.
- Speeds up documentation: Exploratory testing speeds up documentation and creates an instant feedback loop.
- Export documentation to test cases: Integration exploratory testing with tools like Jira recorded documentation can be directly exported to test cases.
When to use Exploratory Testing?
- When need to learn quickly about the application: Exploratory testing is beneficial for the scenarios when a new tester enters the team and needs to learn quickly about the application and provide rapid feedback.
- Review from a user perspective: It comes in handy when there is a need to review products from a user perspective.
- Early iteration required: Exploratory testing is helpful in scenarios when an early iteration is required as the teams don’t have much time to structure the test cases.
- Testing mission-critical applications: Exploratory testing ensures that the tester doesn’t miss the edge cases that can lead to critical quality failures.
- Aid unit test: Exploratory testing can be used to aid unit tests, document the test cases, and use test cases to test extensively during the later sprints.
Types of Exploratory Testing
There are 3 types of exploratory testing:
- Freestyle: In freestyle exploratory testing, the application is tested in an ad-hoc way, there is no maximum coverage, and there are no rules to follow for testing. It is done in the following cases:
- When there is a need to get friendly with the application.
- To check other test engineers’ work.
- To perform smoke tests quickly.
- Strategy Based: Strategy-based testing can be performed with the help of multiple testing techniques like decision-table testing, cause-effect graphing, boundary value analysis, equivalence partitioning, and error guessing. It is done by an experienced tester who has known the application for the longest time.
- Scenario Based: Scenario-based exploratory testing is done on the basis of scenarios with the help of multiple scenarios like end-to-end, test scenarios. The scenarios can be provided by the user or can be prepared by the test team.
Exploratory Testing Process
The following 4 steps are involved in the exploratory testing process:
1. Learn: This is the first phase of exploratory testing in which the tester learns about the faults or issues that occur in the software. The tester uses his/her knowledge, skill, and experience to observe and find what kind of problem the software is suffering from. This is the initial phase of exploratory testing. It also involves different new learning for the tester.
2. Test Case Creation: When the fault is identified i.e. tester comes to know what kind of problem the software is suffering from then the tester creates test cases according to defects to test the software. Test cases are designed by keeping in mind the problems end users can face.
3. Test Case Execution: After the creation of test cases according to end user problems, the tester executed the test cases. Execution of test cases is a prominent phase of any testing process. This includes the computational and operational tasks performed by the software in order to get the desired output.
4. Analysis: After the execution of the test cases, the result is analyzed and observed whether the software is working properly or not. If the defects are found then they are fixed and the above three steps are performed again. Hence this whole process goes on in a cycle and software testing is performed.
Exploratory Testing vs Automated Testing
Below are the differences between exploratory testing and automated testing:
| Parameters | Exploratory Testing | Automated Testing |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | No need to maintain documentation. | Proper documentation is required. |
| Test cases | Test cases are determined during testing. | Test cases are determined in advance. |
| Is testing reproducible | Testing cannot be reproduced, only defects can be reproduced. | Testing can be reproduced. |
| Investment in documentation | There is no investment in preparing documentation. | There is a significant investment in preparing documentation and test scripts. scripts. |
| Spontaneity | This is spontaneous and directed by requirements and exploring during testing. | This is well-planned and directed from requirements. |
Best Practices for Exploratory Testing
- Understand the customer: For effective exploratory testing, it is important to understand the customer’s viewpoint and expectations properly. End users browse the same software in different ways based on age, gender preferences, and other factors. Testers must be able to approach the software from all those user perspectives.
- Aim of testing should be clear: For effective exploratory testing, it is very important for the testers to have a clear mindset and have clarity on the mission of testing. Testers should maintain clear notes on what needs to be tested, and why it needs to be tested.
- Proper documentation: It is important to make proper notes and take a document and monitor test coverage, risk, Tets execution log, issues, and queries.
- Tracking of issues: The tester should maintain a proper record of questions and issues raised during testing.
Challenges of Exploratory Testing
- Replication of failure: In exploratory testing replication of failure to identify the cause is difficult.
- Difficult to determine the best test case: In exploratory testing, determining the best test case to execute or to determine the best tool to use can be challenging.
- Difficult to document all events: During exploratory testing documentation of all events is difficult.
- Difficult reporting: Reporting test results is difficult in exploratory testing as the report does not have well-planned test scripts to compare with the outcome.
Advantages of Exploratory Testing
- Less preparation required: It takes no preparation as it is an unscripted testing technique.
- Finds critical defects: Exploratory testing involves an investigation process that helps to find critical defects very quickly.
- Improves productivity: In exploratory testing, testers use their knowledge, skills, and experience to test the software. It helps to expand the imagination of the testers by executing more test cases, thus enhancing the overall quality of the software.
- Generation of new ideas: Exploratory testing encourages creativity and intuition thus the generation of new ideas during test execution.
- Catch defects missed in test cases: Exploratory testing helps to uncover bugs that are normally ignored by other testing techniques.
Disadvantages of Exploratory Testing
- Tests cannot be reviewed in advance: In exploratory testing, Testing is performed randomly so once testing is performed it cannot be reviewed.
- Dependent on the tester’s knowledge: In exploratory testing, the testing is dependent on the tester’s knowledge, experience, and skill. Thus, it is limited by the tester’s domain knowledge.
- Difficult to keep track of tests: In Exploratory testing, as testing is done in an ad-hoc manner, thus keeping track of tests performed is difficult.
- Not possible to repeat test methodology: Due to the ad-hoc nature of testing in exploratory testing, tests are done randomly and thus it is not suitable for longer execution time, and it is not possible to repeat the same test methodology.
