Exploratory Testing

Exploratory testing is a testing approach of simultaneous learning, test design and test execution. The simple definition of exploratory testing is test case design and test case execution is performed in parallel. It is an approach of testing the software without any specific plans and schedules. In structured or scripted testing, tester designs test cases first and afterwards proceed with test case execution. On the converse, exploratory testing is concurrent process of test case design and test case execution all done at the same time. In this approach the testers don’t have test cases or test plan documents available to test the application.

In Exploratory testing, testers understand the application first by exploring the application and based on their understanding they come up with the test scenarios or test cases. The testers spend minimal efforts on planning and maximum on test execution. Tester takes help of the current test execution result to decide what can be tested next?. In other words, the action tester needs to perform next is governed by what tester is doing currently.

In Testers can find different kinds of defects or bugs as they have freedom in testing. The quality of identified defect depends on the tester experience and skills. The experienced and skilled tester can identify the more quality defects compared to less experienced and skilled tester.

When to use Exploratory testing:

• Requirement documents are not available or partially available
• Application needs to be tested in early SDLC
• Testing time frame is limited
• Experienced and skilled testers are available
• Critical application testing
• Focus is on identifying the defects without spending much time on test planning and test designing 

Advantages:

• No pre-planning is required
• No preparation is required
• Saves time as test design and execution is performed in parallel
• Uncover bugs which are normally missed by other testing techniques

Disadvantages:

• It is purely depends on the testers experience and skills
• Need in-depth domain or application knowledge
• Not suitable for long execution time
• Difficult to reproduce the defect as test cases are not available