This whitepaper explains how to perform exploratory testing with its features and advantages.

1. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
EXPLORATORY TESTING
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
A Whitepaper by RapidValue Solutions

2. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
index
01
Introduction
02
Features of Exploratory Testing
03
Exploratory Testing and Planned
Testing
04
How to do Exploratory Testing
05
Ways to Perform Exploratory Testing
06
Why Exploratory Testing is
Important for Agile Projects
07
Advantages of Exploratory Testing
09
Conclusion
©RapidValue Solutions
10
About RapidValue

3. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
Introduction
Exploratory testing is a continuous process
for executing testing activities, in which the
design and execution phases are performed
simultaneously. The tester might start with
the testing procedure, without having clear
knowledge about the guidelines for testing
processes. Instead, the tester decides what and
how to test, during the testing itself, by exploring
the product. This provides more flexibility to
the tester and the test is performed accurately.
Primarily used for functional testing, exploratory
testing enables the tester to learn about the
product while testing, making the tests more
efficient every time.
Exploratory testing is a hands-on approach that
simultaneously involves discovering, investigating,
and learning. This type of testing maximizes test
execution and minimizes planning.
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS

4. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
Out of the box thinking
Exploratory testing needs a deviation
Time management
The exploratory testing involves less effort.
It is helpful when you are concerned about
short span of testing cycles. You don’t need
to dedicate much time for designing
the test scripts. Once you understand
the requirements, you are able to run
exploratory testing effectively.
Make your test scripts effective
While running exploratory testing, you
will acquire more knowledge about
new scenarios and bugs. You can take
note of that which is going to help you
with the test scripts. Testers can focus
mainly on these test scripts to find bugs.
Most of them are likely to use real user
scenarios which can prove to be useful
for scripts and increase the test coverage.
Systematic approach
Exploratory testing demands that the
tester should think out of the box. Since
there are no scripts involved, you really
need to be aware of what needs to be
tested. This is what exploratory testing is
all about. You get answers to questions
like, “what happens if I do this?”,“ why
does that happen?” etc. Answer to each
question guides the evolution of the test.
You are essentially “exploring” the software
application.
Less preparation, more testing
Exploratorytestingismainlyfocusedontest
execution rather than creating test scripts.
Therefore, you don’t need to complete
functional test design document, which
involves a lot of preparation, planning,
writing etc. The effort for test designing
can be utilized for test execution. In
Exploratory testing, the test design phase
and execution happen in parallel. No
conventional test cases or test plan need to
be followed. Without following a prepared
test script, you can decide what to test.
Features of Exploratory Testing
from convention testing approach, using
the test scripts or test design document.
You can traverse through the application
as required. By doing this, the tester is
able to find new scenarios. He/she has
the flexibility to explore the scenarios by
experimenting with the product.
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

5. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
Exploratory Testing and Planned Testing
Exploratory testing is a feature that is added to
planned testing. Here, the test design is created
first and execution phases are created and
conducted later. A tester who is conducting the
tests will get a set of guidelines and list of steps
to follow, in advance, describing how the test will
perform.
One of the advantages of planned testing is
the accessibility to share the test plan with
others and perform the resource analysis
before the execution starts. This is often
used when there is knowledge about the
product and time resources are not an issue.
This also, enables more options. For instance,
different planned testing tools can be used during
the planned testing design phase. These include
equivalence classes, decision tables, decision trees,
state machines or use cases. On the other hand,
one of the issues with planned testing is that due
to the structural process and need to follow a step-
by-step procedure as specified in the designing
phase, some product aspects might not be clear, if
they are not considered in the plan. In exploratory
testing, they are discovered, spontaneously.
Therefore, if you have already executed planned
testing, it would be a good practice to add
exploratory testing in the beginning of your
process. You could also, add exploratory testing
later in the cycle. This will mitigate the possibility
of undiscovered areas. In some cases, performing
the same tasks in a different way can bring
different results.
Planned
Testing
Functionality-1
Functionality-2
Functionality-3
Functionality-4
Exploratory
Testing
Functionality-1
Functionality-2 Functionality-3
Functionality-4
Functionalities are checked
in a planned manner
Functionalities are checked
in an ad-hoc manner
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

6. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
How to do Exploratory Testing
Exploratory Testing Process
Before taking the final plunge and deciding
to go with exploratory testing, one should
have a purpose and some defined goal.
In exploratory testing, you don’t just verify
whether functionality is working as expected
or not. But also, need to think of different
scenarios for functionality that could lead to
breaking of the system or cause it not to work.
Test from different aspects and from
different perspectives need to be carried out.
Also, try to add some user specific
scenarios. It is recommended to try and
test the product like someone who is
exploring the product for the first time.
Remember, you’re essentially designing the
tests at the same time you’re conducting them.
Exploratory
Testing Test
Design
Test
Execution
Learn
Analysis
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

7. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
2. Session - based Testing
It is the most common way to apply exploratory
testing strategy. The idea is to provide a period of
time, usually between 30 minutes to 2 hours for a
mission. Mission refers to what needs to be tested.
This mission can be a functionality, a form, or any
aspect of the product you need to focus on.
After the testing is completed, the tester will
complete a document with notes from the
session, including the date, name of the tester,
risks, bugs, coverage and metrics. Some of these
metrics are total time spent on the session,
1. Ad Hoc Testing
This is the most informal and less recommended
way for testing. Anyone is able to perform Ad
Hoc testing even if no testing skills exist. All you
need is to ask him/her to try the product without
giving instructions or setting expectations.
In Ad Hoc testing, there is no order, objective
or method. This method can be helpful if the
only objective is to report bugs. However, since
exploratory tests are not registered, there is
no way to follow up or trace the tester actions.
Ways to Perform Exploratory Testing
3. Strategy - based Testing
This is probably the most used technique by
the experienced testers. In this case, the tester
will apply the various types of techniques, such
as limit values or equivalence partitioning to
create test cases while testing. This way the
tester can use his/her knowledge and implement
techniques he/she considers most appropriate
for a successful testing.
relation between time spent on the mission versus
time spent on opportunities and percentage
of time for testing, defects and session built.
The tester then, analyzes these metrics. For
example, if the relation between time focused
on the mission is less than the acceptance value
agreed for this system, a new session may be
needed. However, distractions are allowed and
may also, provide information as per the need for
new mission or more time for testing.
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

8. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
2. Finds important bugs
If there are new features added to your product,
you need to understand the feature properly
to design the test scripts, when you have time
constraint. Exploratory testing being mainly
focused on new features, there are chances
to find more bugs than already found, while
testing and in existing features. In exploratory
testing, you are traversing through the
product with different scenarios. Because of
this, there is a probability of finding new bugs.
3. Increases the test coverage
This is related to the above point. When you
find many bugs in a feature, you can take
note of that and include them in your test
cases. You will get a set of test cases that can
1. Saves time
The agile environment is always running with
tight deadlines. It’s very important to understand
the requirements in a given span of time. Once
you have clear idea about the application, you can
execute the exploratory testing. While performing
the test design and execution in parallel,
exploratory testing reduces your time by creating
a test design and test procedure. You can utilize
your time to explore the product in details without
compromising on the business requirement.
4. Enhances your understanding of the product
Once you have a clear idea about the application,
you can execute and explore the testing cycle.
This will help you to understand the product
more. Also, you have the chance to use the
product like an end-user. This will help you in
understanding the application to a large extent.
5. Ensures flexibility in change of requirements
In agile development, each phase has
time constraint. The client can change the
requirement anytime which is why agile has
been made flexible. In such scenarios, exploratory
testing is of huge benefit when you don’t have
the time to plan your test design. You can
test the most important features and can be
assured that the product will remain stable.
6. Accessible with sprint cycles
The agile methodology runs through small span
of cycles for each of the phases. Exploratory
testing has great advantage as it can find the
bugs in the new changes much faster and the
entire scrum team can manage all the tasks
within the deadline of that sprint efficiently.
Why Exploratory Testing is
Important for Agile Projects
be focused upon in the next cycle of testing.
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

9. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
•• Tests cannot be reviewed.
•• It is difficult to keep track of what tests have
been carried out.
Advantages of Exploratory Testing Some Points to Consider
Sometimes there isn’t enough time to write a
test plan and a set of test cases prior to testing.
You just need to test. Exploratory testing is useful
when rapid feedback is required. You might find
it useful when you’re not sure which sequence to
follow while testing. The process of exploratory
testing will teach you what to test further.
Most of us probably have conducted exploratory
testing when bugs are found. When you
find bugs, you don’t write a set of test cases
on how to test the bug, you just test it. This
approach of testing helps you to identify
the scope and severity of the bug quickly.
There is often, no exact record of what’s been
tested with exploratory testing. This makes it
difficult to measure test coverage and prove
that the testing has been effectively carried
out. It’s also possible to overlook bugs while
testing in this manner. A pre-defined set of
test cases helps ensure proper test coverage.
By carrying out the test design and test
execution in parallel, the time spent on test
design is less. There may be a risk of bug
slippage due to the lack of good test design
document. Few other things to keep in mind are:
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

10. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
•• Divide the application into modules and the
modules into different pages. Then start the
exploratory testing. This will give you the right
coverage.
•• Make a list of all the features and mark when
it is completed.
•• Begin with a basic flow and then gradually
improve it by adding more features to the test.
•• Test all the input values and fields.
•• Test for validation/error message.
•• Test all the negative scenarios.
•• Check the GUI against the standards.
•• Check the integration of the application with
other external applications.
•• Check for complex business logics.
There is no standard pattern for doing this type
of testing. As a general testing practice, a tester
writes test cases, creates test data, and then
executes them. However, in exploratory testing,
no test cases are written. The tester opens the
application and starts browsing to identify defects.
•• Use exploratory testing if you have time
constraintsordonotpossessmuchknowledge
about the product.
•• Learn from previous tests performed to
conduct more efficient tests in the future.
•• While you perform exploratory testing, take
notes. They will serve as important inputs
while decision-making and test coverage.
•• When conducting session-based testing, the
objective is to test and achieve the mission.
However, distractions aren’t necessarily an
issue as different perspectives may arise from
distractions.
Hands - on Approach
If you intend to learn about the tool or product,
exploratory testing is a useful approach. This may
help you to make the right decisions for your
testing plan.
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

11. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
Conclusion
Exploratory testing is a hands-on approach in which the testers are involved in minimum
planning and maximum test execution. It is beneficial as it triggers the thought process
and helps the product without following the test design techniques. The main advantage
it provides is that, it saves time by preparing the test design and working on the execution
phases in parallel. Exploratory testing is considered to be a superior technique to enhance
your testing skills.
Author
Ifyou’dliketoknowmoreaboutExploratory
Testing, please reach out to us at
contactus@rapidvaluesolutions.com
We’d be happy to hear from you!
Jithin Kannoth
Senior Test Engineer
RapidValue Solutions
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EXPLORATORY
TESTING
A WAY TO ENHANCE
YOUR TESTING SKILLS
©RapidValue Solutions

12. Exploratory Testing
A Way to Enhance your Testing Skills
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