Exploratory testing
Exploratory testing is an investigative testing approach in which testers learn about software, design tests, and execute them concurrently while seeking unexpected behavior or defects.
Software Testing with Generative AI
Exploratory testing is an approach in which test learning, design, and execution proceed concurrently.
- How it is used
- Guides heuristic investigation when testers must learn from a system while designing and executing further tests.
- How deep it goes
- Explains charters, session activities, heuristics, and findings, while stopping short of prescribing deterministic test steps.
- Examples
- Uses a crowded booking calendar, overflow and loading bugs, keyboard navigation, and the PAOLO mnemonic.
- What you can do after
- Apply exploratory testing through a charter, observation, heuristic prompts, and investigation of emerging risks.
Read how Software Testing with Generative AI explains exploratory testing →
Shipping Go: Develop, deliver, discuss, design, and go again
Exploratory testing is testing in which testers actively investigate a system and generate test ideas while interacting with it.
- How it is used
- Uses deliberate attempts to break a system as an additional testing practice after behavior-driven development guides feature work.
- How deep it goes
- Defines exploratory testing through load and special-character attacks, but stops short of a detailed session workflow or test-design method.
- Examples
- Uses heavy load and special characters in input fields as concrete probes for breaking a system.
- What you can do after
- Apply exploratory testing by generating extreme load and unusual input, then automate repeatable scenarios with Selenium or Cypress.
Read how Shipping Go: Develop, deliver, discuss, design, and go again explains exploratory testing →
Related concepts
- Seleniumuses · Selenium is an open-source suite of tools and APIs for automating web browsers and testing web applications.
- test charterconfigured by · A test charter is a concise mission statement that defines the focus and purpose of an exploratory testing session.
- language modelused by · A language model is a computational model that represents patterns in linguistic tokens to estimate sequence probabilities and predict or generate language from context.
These guides are generated from the text of Manning books by Manning's knowledge graph and link to the sections they draw on. The full books are available on liveBook and at manning.com.