Software Test Design

1

Making the Most of Exploratory Testing

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This chapter introduces exploratory testing: manually trying out a new feature to get rapid feedback on its behavior. We’ll describe exploratory testing in detail, consider its strengths and weaknesses, and when you should perform it in a project.

We’ll look at the prerequisites you need to begin exploratory testing and the approaches you should take. This testing can be a miniature version of the complete test plan, taking a customer’s point of view, and using your naivety about how the feature works to identify confusing areas.

Exploratory testing ...