What Is Exploratory Testing In Agile & Best Testing Tools Example

The basic question in the tester’s mind is “what is exploratory testing in software testing?

As the name suggests that exploratory testing means testing software without any specific plans and schedules. This is a formal testing process where we don’t have any test cases or test planning documents to test the application. Identify the functionality of the application by exploring the application and exploring & learning the application testers design the test cases & simultaneously execute them as well.

Exploratory testing definition

• Exploratory Testing is a testing approach that allows you to apply your ability and skill as a tester in a powerful way.”
• Testers have to understand the application first by exploring the application and based on this understanding they should come up with the test scenarios. After that start actual testing of the application.

Key tips to remember in Exploratory testing techniques:

• The preparation of test scenarios validates the software stability.
• Exhaustively testing the software based on the identified requirements.
• Find out the requirements as well as the functionality of the software application.
• Find out the limitation of the software application.
• Identify the scope of the project.

In this type of testing the testers have to do the minimum effort for planning but maximum execution cover so that tester gets the exact functionality of the application. This can be helpful for the tester to decide what can be next to the test. During testing, the tester learns about the behavior of the software application, start creating a test plan or test scenarios.

There are different exploratory testing tools on the market. One of the Exploratory testing tools is “Session Tester” which can be used for managing and recording Session-Based Testing. The creation of test scenarios is totally based on the experience and learning of application under test.

Check Also: Positive and Negative Software Testing

• In this type of testing, the tester has freedom in testing. The finding bug does not only depend on the experience of the tester but also on the skill of the tester.
• Many testers are thinking of when this type of testing comes in the picture, so here are points when we can use the exploratory testing:
• When you don’t have a requirement or testing document or minimal documents.
• When you want to complete your application testing in a short period of time

When you have to test the application in the early stage of SDLC

Advantages

• It doesn’t require preparation for testing as we don’t have documents for testing.
• In this type of testing time saves due to all task are doing simultaneously like Testing, Designing test scenarios, and executing test scenarios.
• The tester can report many issues due to the incomplete requirements or missing required documents.

Disadvantages

• Few issues cannot be the catch in this type of testing.
• There is a review of test planning & designing of test cases/scenarios while testing may cause issues.
• Testers have to remember the scenario what he is executing because if any bug is found then the tester should report a bug with proper steps to reproduce Difficulty to perform the exact manner, especially for newly found bugs.