What is Exploratory Testing?

Exploratory Testing, a concept being pioneered by James Bach and Cem Kaner, is the process of concurrent test design and execution. It is testing based on a fairly good understanding of what an application is supposed to do, and an inquisitive nature, as opposed to a set of strict requirements and a list of pre-defined steps.

Exploratory Testing is what happens when someone hands you a completed application, gives you a five minute description of what it does, and asks you to test it. It is in fact a process that almost always occurs; usually, it is a very informal, almost hidden process, that comes just before the creation of formal tests begin.

You are doing Exploratory Testing when the next thing you test is based on something you just observed, rather than something someone else wrote on a piece of paper.

Some of the benefits of Exploratory Testing are:

1. It can start very early in the development life cycle.
2. It is not dependant on anything other than an application, e.g. no requirements or documentation or business use cases are necessary.
3. Since it is free form in nature, it can be extremely cost effective; if you do something and it works, you spend no more energy on it, as opposed to formal or automated testing, where you still have to spend hours generating the test to prove it works. On the other hand, if you see something suspicious, you can explore it immediately.
   
   

How does TestExplorer Work?

TestExplorer is not an automated testing tool, but rather a computer tool for facilitating any form of manual testing. TestExplorer runs quietly in the background while the tester executes a manual test. All keyboard and mouse input are recorded into a log file. Screen shots are captured to a results file, and can be captured at specific time intervals, or keyed to certain inputs, e.g. a screenshot each time the Enter key is pressed.

By capturing this information in the background, the tester can completely document and recreate with 100% accuracy the execution of this test. Further, by setting screenshots to occur at specific time intervals, such as every tenth of a second, TestExplorer can playback the visual recreation of the test for post test analysis, at any speed. This allows the tester to display for development team members exactly what he did and observed, in a fraction of the time it took him to do it.

By combining timed screenshots with specific keyboard triggers, a real-time recreation of the test can be logged, as well as, a specific screenshot tied to each step of the test.

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