Practical Tips for Effective Exploratory Testing

Vasu Venkatesh (Senior Exploratory Tester at Moolya)
June 22, 2023

Clients in the Agile era demand faster delivery of software products. They want each team to find ways to speed up the process and approach without affecting other areas. Exploratory Testing is one of the methods that testing teams use to meet this demand. However, the effectiveness of exploratory testing is crucial, as it is like sailing in the ocean without a compass and finding the way. If we get lost in exploratory testing, we will end up wasting time, money, and scope, among other things.

This article will give you some useful advice on how effectively we can perform exploratory testing.

Let us consider two different scenarios and see how to act accordingly.

Scenario 1: You joined as a replacement for existing QA, or you become part of an existing QA team.

Scenario 2: You start as a QA where none existed before.


Some of the common challenges we might face in both scenarios are:

  1. Understanding the product from a business standpoint and a customer standpoint.
  2. Getting the knowledge Transferred from other QAs considering scenario 1, and from BA, Product Owner, or Dev team considering scenario 2.
  3. Understanding the vision and mission of the product.
  4. Understand the targeted audience as it will help us in test coverage and testing edge case scenarios
  5. Getting hands-on with the product
  6. Analyze the process followed, tools used, procedure & methodology implemented, documents maintained, test ideas templates followed, release notes provided, etc.
  7. Responsibilities took post-QA Sign-off
  8. Outcomes provided post-QA Sign-off such as health report generation, bugs reported for each build, etc.
  9. You might have no idea where to start Exploratory Testing.

How can we perform exploratory testing effectively and overcome the challenges involved?


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how to perform exploratory testing effectively?

I. Understanding the Customers:

This is an important phase in achieving effective exploratory testing. Connecting with a Business Analyst, Product Owner, or collaborating with other teams, such as the Customer Success team, Developers is mandatory to understand a few things mentioned below.

- What is our product all about?

- Who is our target audience?

- Which module/feature/sub-feature will be used mostly by the end users?

- What are customer needs and expectations?

- Which module had a greater number of production issues earlier?

- How are we going to collect information such as user personas, user stories, user feedback, and user research that reflects the user's perspective and behavior?

II. Define a scope:

As it is mandatory to define the scope, the below list of factors should be considered.

- Categorizing the type of test as Design Verification, Integration, API, Data Validation, Functional Validation, etc.,

- Identifying the POCs like BA, Product Owner, or anyone who is immediately available for clarifying doubts and confusions, making key notes or mind maps for future references.

- Defining the Entry Criteria, Exit Criteria, Test Pass Criteria, Test Fail Criteria, etc.,

- Setting up estimations based on no. of working days available, resources available, the complexity of the functionalities being tested, the priority of the modules, identifying the risks, and availability of the dev team for bug fixes.

III. Use a time box:

  1. Create a time-boxed event by deciding how long the test should take and scheduling it in the calendar.
  2. Use tools to track time while performing these session-based testing, and analyze the productivity each time.
  3. Analyze the code coverage to eliminate gaps to increase productivity and module coverage
  4. Focus on the requirement traceability matrix to ensure test coverage is meeting the Definition of Done.
  5. Use Chrome Extension free tools like–
  • Bug Magnet to generate all types of test data.
  • Exploratory testing to raise bugs, notes, questions, and ideas instantly and generate reports out of them along with screenshots.
  • Bird Eats Bugs for technical screen recording which collects real-time logs in seconds.
  • Form Filler to fill the multiple input fields at once with dummy data
  • Resolution Test to test the screens on multiple sizes at a single click

These save time on ad hoc tasks and help increase test coverage and productivity.

IV. Use a bug taxonomy:

Classifying the bugs based on the below-mentioned criteria will help the cross-functional teams to make decisions on a set of bugs that need to be given priority during Bug Triage Meetings.

  1. Requirements, features, and functionality bugs
  2. Structural bugs
  3. Data bugs
  4. Coding bugs
  5. Interface, integration, and system bug
  6. Test and test design bugs

This also helps the leadership team to understand which area the quality is getting affected the most for that particular feature/module.

With these actionable strategies, we can navigate the complex waters of exploratory testing, discover critical bugs, and deliver high-quality software products. By continuously refining our approach and embracing these practical tips, we pave the way for improved testing outcomes, satisfied clients, and successful projects. Let's embark on our exploratory testing journey with confidence and drive impactful results.

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