Exploratory Testing (ET) approach has gained focus and popularity in recent years. There are more studies and has received professional attention from industry too. I think, ET approach acts like a power to a tester, but power comes with responsibility as well, it’s a great opportunity and freedom for tester to explore and identify areas for quality improvement. Tester has the advantage to demonstrate own skill set, knowledge and experience from different perspectives and help improve the quality of system under test.

You as a curious tester have been using exploratory approach unconsciously in your test activities, just give it a thought.

ET has been known as simultaneous learning, test design, test execution and test analysis — a way to define this approach. Over time, the definition of ET has emerged from an error checking technique to a defined testing approach. You can find all the definitions since 1988 on James Bach blog.

From my personal experience, observations and discussion with ET practitioners,  I would like to highlight 6 benefits of using this approach, even though there are many more. These benefits are related directly or indirectly to testers, teams and management. Continue reading →