Exploratory Testing: What Agile Teams Need to Know

It was J. R. R. Tolkien who wrote: ‘Not all those who wander are lost’ and this rings true when it comes to Exploratory Testing. Many in the industry believe Exploratory Testing is the future of manual testing – especially for Agile processes. And chances are you’re already doing Exploratory Testing—whether you call it that or not.

Exploratory Testing is much more than error guessing or common bug hunting; it’s an orchestrated event that enables Agile teams to not only catch bugs earlier but also to collaborate on more effective session-based testing. In a recent article published on Techwell, Tricentis Product Manager Ingo Philipp talked about the 3 Reasons Exploratory Testing is Great for Agile Teams. In this article, Philipp convinces Agile teams to embrace exploratory testing for the following reasons:

• Exploratory Testing exposes defects that automated and manual testing miss.
• Exploratory Testing helps team members collaborate to expose more types of defects.
• Exploratory Testing finds functional defects when automated testing is not (yet) viable.

Exploratory Testing also reaches beyond the traditional boundaries of Agile testing. Since no specialized test automation or scripting knowledge is needed, a broad spectrum of team members can participate. This includes UX designers, business analysts, technical writers, and support engineers as well as developers and product owners.