Integrating Exploratory Testing into a Disciplined Test Design Process (Two Day Workshop)

Exploratory Testing has been known in practice for over a decade. To some people, ET is very much an ad hoc on fly type of test. To others, ET has a process to it. However, the process differs from one practitioner to another and from one project to another. Given the fast pace of project these days and the lack of good requirement documentation, in addition agile methodologies that are becoming more and more popular, ET has become almost a necessity for every project. We are at a point where we can’t resist Exploratory Testing; we need to “Legitimize” it. Legitimization always requires rules, constraints, and processes. This course will use hands-on practices to teach attendees a number of practical methods, techniques, and best practices that reduce the harmful effect of typical Exploratory Testing and increase its effectiveness.

Learning Objectives

This course seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• Understanding the purpose of software testing
• Understanding the difference between requirement coverage and code coverage
• Understanding the difference between Exploratory and Scripted Testing
• Understanding the essential test design activities
• Learning how to plan and design for Exploratory Testing based on poorly-written requirements
• Learning how to plan and design for Exploratory Testing based on User Stories
• Learning how to plan and design for Exploratory Testing based on user interface
• Learning how to build scenarios and/or acceptance criteria for User Stories
• Learning the difference between acceptance criteria and Scenarios
• Learning how to execute tests on the fly
• Learning how to effectively and quickly document test results and bug reports

Topics to be covered

1. Concepts and Terminology
   • The purpose of testing
   • The test design discipline – from scripted to ad hoc
   • Exploratory testing possible concerns
   • The need for disciplined testing
2. A Disciplined Exploratory Test Process
   • Exploratory test planning
   • Exploratory test design
   • Exploratory test execution
   • Exploratory bug reporting
3. Exploratory Testing Based on User Interface
   • The Explore-Learn-Document-Ask cycle
   • Workshop 1: Single user story
4. Scenario-Based Exploratory Testing
   • Scenarios defined
   • Positive Vs negative scenarios
   • Documenting scenarios
   • Scenarios Vs. acceptance criteria
   • Scenario-based risk analysis
   • Workshop 2: building scenarios
   • Validating scenarios
   • Workshop 3: (team) Validating scenarios
   • Workshop 4: (team) Multiple user stories – Building and validating scenarios
5. Exploratory Test Design
   • Exploratory test design
   • Exploratory test cases
   • Workshop 5: (Individual) – writing your exploratory tests
6. Exploratory Test Execution
   • Executing scripts
   • Executing scenarios
   • Modes of exploratory test execution
7. Bug Reporting in exploratory testing
   • Workshop 6: (Individual) – Executing your tests