{"id":14734,"date":"2020-07-16T21:01:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T15:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coforge.site\/cigniti\/blog\/?p=14734"},"modified":"2020-07-16T21:01:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T15:31:45","slug":"exploratory-testing-need-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coforge.site\/cigniti\/blog\/exploratory-testing-need-best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"The what, why, and how of exploratory testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The increasing adoption of test automation across industries for software development and testing gave rise to a general belief that manual testing will soon become extinct and automation will take over all the testing processes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although it is widely believed, it is not true.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While automation is the right choice when it comes to iterative testing processes such as regression tests, it is of little help when a software application testing requires a creative approach.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert Cecil Martin<\/span>, one of the founders of the Agile Manifesto talks about exploratory testing and automation \u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need humans doing something that a machine can do. What we do want the human testers doing is exploratory testing. Exploratory testing is a creative endeavor in which human testers explore the behavior of the system in an attempt to characterize its behaviors; both documented and undocumented<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) defines exploratory testing as \u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cExploratory testing is a<\/span>n informal test design technique where the tester actively controls the design of the tests as those tests are performed and uses information gained while testing to design new and better tests.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us get into the details.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is exploratory testing?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually, in a Software development lifecycle, the test requirements, objectives, and strategies are pre-defined. While testing such software applications, the testers follow the pre-defined testing approach and look for the defects or bugs only within the set limits of the requirements.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In such types of scripted testing, the test cases are determined in advance. Therefore, the scripted tests make a good candidate for automation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, these scripted test requirements may miss critical scenarios that often present as bugs into production. And, testers do not look for these scenarios because they were not in the requirements.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Exploratory testing allows the testers to find the bugs that they\u00a0<\/span>are<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>not<\/span><\/i>\u00a0looking for. Exploratory testing is about investigating a software application to discover hidden defects while offering the scope of continuously improving the code for the release.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Exploratory testing is about being creative and following the gut. It is more of an ad-hoc or freestyle way of exposing critical bugs that may prove fatal into production.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is exploratory testing needed?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Agile software development life cycles are fast-moving, performing releases in a span of hours to days or weeks. Undoubtedly, test automation plays a key role in ensuring that the releases happen within the set deadlines as automated regression tests are run to check if the new changes have affected the existing code in any way.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, when a new feature or functionality is added, it is essential to bring in an end-user\u2019s perspective while testing the software for quality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To understand the need of exploratory testing, let\u2019s take a look at some of the principles on which Agile manifesto:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n