Well, to many people this is nothing new. But still, there are a lot of testers, and indeed test leads, that still think that Exploratory Testing is a technique that can be used in testing. To some extent, it has to do with that both Cem Kaner and James Bach have used this term amongst [...]
Exploratory Testing is not as widely used as it could be, because management doesn’t want it. Stated reasons for this could be unaccountable, unstructured, sloppy, non-scientific etc, reasons that can be refuted by communication. But I think the real reason is something Exploratory Testing can’t have: a controlled process. Management/Companies want to have a plan [...]
Let us assume you are a test lead and you have a group of testers. Some are totally new to the profession and some are old and experienced. In the scripted test environment you might setup a test matrix, plan test cases and allocate them among the testers. Some of the testers might have been [...]
If you haven’t read the excellent articles by Michael Bolton regarding Testing vs. Checking yet, now is a good time to do it: http://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/08/testing-vs-checking/ http://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/09/transpection-and-three-elements-of/ http://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/09/pass-vs-fail-vs-is-there-problem-here/ Done? One thing that struck me with this is that the more testing you do will result in less testing and more checking. I.e., the more you test, the more [...]
When looking for personel in general it is common that we want passionate people who love their work. Most passionate testers that I read about are usually part of the context-driven movement. Can there be testers out there that are really passionate about how they work in the heavy scripted test environment, where someone else [...]
In many organisations it is hard to change how you are working. You might be bound to certain CM tools, how things are expected to be planned, documentation systems, management expectations, project management expectations and so on. In many of these traditional environments you might also use the regular test plans, test matrices, test specifications, [...]
Exploratory Testing in its purest form is an approach that focus on learning, evolution and freedom. Cem Kaner’s definition is to the point: “Exploratory software testing is a style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the value of her work by treating test-related learning, [...]
I just want to promote a really good blog post written by Michael Bolton where he describes the difference between Testing and Checking: http://www.developsense.com/2009/08/testing-vs-checking.html I wish that many managers, testers and developers read this post… Cheers, Henrik
From a managerial perspective without knowing too much about testing, your sole experience comes from the scripted test environment… What does Scripted Testing include? Control over what is to be tested, in the sense that you have a clear coverage of test cases on certain areas. Reports where you can see exactly how many test [...]
This is my reply to the thread “Persuading about Exploratory Methods” in software-testing@yahoogroups.com. This starts out with the problem that it is sometimes hard to persuade a manager about Exploratory Testing, when all that matters to the manager is that tests ought to be documented (in order to know what should be tested, how many [...]