MYTHS ABOUT EXPLORATORY TESTING

Ravneet Kaur (Lean Agile SAFe Coach)

TESTING IN THE WATERFALL DAYS

TESTING IN THE WATERFALL DAYS

”Back in the old waterfall days, my favorite time testing was during User Acceptance Testing (UAT) because the end users embraced Exploratory Testing without even knowing it.”

WHAT IS EXPLORATORY TESTING?

Exploratory testing is…

Simultaneous… Test Execution

Test Design

Learning

Optimization

CASE STUDY – MAKING EXPLORATORY TESTING THE WAY OF TESTING FOR AGILE TEAMS

EXPLORATORY TESTING IS SAME AS

AD-HOC TESTING (MYTH)

WHAT IS AD-HOC TESTING?

SOME MYTHS ABOUT EXPLORATORY TESTING

EXPLORATORY TESTING IS

UNPLANNED

EXPLORATORY TESTING MEANS LACK OF VISIBILITY

AND TRANSPARENCY

EXPLORATORY TESTING IS NOT A

STRUCTURED APPROACH

EXPLORATORY TESTING DOESN‘T PROVIDE

COMPLETE COVERAGE

EXPLORATORY TESTING CAN‘T BE

MANAGED OR MEASURED

EXPLORATORY TESTING MEANS

NO DOCUMENTATION

EXPLORATORY TESTING IS UNPLANNED

(MYTH)

EXPLORATORY TESTING AND THE PLANNING MYTH

What is “Planning"? Is Exploratory Testing necessarily unplanned?

Why might we need to do things that aren't

rigorously planned?

How do we coordinate and support each other, if not with a plan?

1. Understanding the Requirements

2. Risk and Impact Analysis

3. Identify Test Objects

4. Test Coverage

5. Distinguish between Good Case and Bad Case Tests

6. Indicate Priority of Test Cases

7. Test Completion

7-STEP PROCESS FOR PREPARATION OF TESTING SESSION

EXPLORATORY TESTING CAN‘T BE MANAGED OR MEASURED (MYTH)

HOW TO MEASURE AND MANAGE EXPLORATORY TESTING?

“How do we get informed on the progress?”

“How progress should be tracked and reported?”

“How will you align with Project Management?”

HOW TO MEASURE AND MANAGE EXPLORATORY TESTING?

HOW TO MEASURE AND MANAGE EXPLORATORY TESTING?

EXPLORATORY TESTERS REQUIRE A

DIFFERENT SKILL SET THAN TESTERS DOING SCRIPTED TESTING (MYTH)

WHAT SKILL SET IS NEEDED BY EXPLORATORY TESTERS?

This technique requires a specific attitude and domain knowledge from the tester.

It requires a certain level of maturity, product insight and discipline of the tester.

You need commitment from management to hire the correct employees for the job.

SCRIPTED VS EXPLORATORY TESTERS

Myth or Reality Scripted Testing means high planning, high predictability and qualitative documentation.

SCRIPTED VS EXPLORATORY TESTERS

Myth or Reality

Scripted Tests, if repeated again and again leads to no more defects making the software stable.

EXPLORATORY TESTING TAKES MORE

TIME THAN SCRIPTED TESTING (MYTH)

DOES EXPLORATORY TESTING TAKE MORE TIME THAN SCRIPTED TESTING?

EXPLORATORY TESTING CANNOT BE

APPLIED TO COMPLEX SYSTEMS (MYTH)

IS EXPLORATORY TESTING NOT FOR COMPLEX SYSTEMS?

EXPLORATORY TESTING DOES NOT TAKE

CARE OF RISK MANAGEMENT (MYTH)

DOES EXPLORATORY TESTING TAKE CARE OF RISK MANAGEMENT?

The counter action to the risk is not concrete enough to convince management.

Only informal technique applied for risk analysis? No FMEA? No Prisma?

How do you handle the risks?

DOES EXPLORATORY TESTING TAKE CARE OF RISK MANAGEMENT?

1. Risk profiles evolve over time.

2. The earlier you design the tests, the less you understand the program and its risk profile.

3. The scripted approach means the test stays the same, even though the risk profile is changing.

DOES EXPLORATORY TESTING TAKE CARE OF RISK MANAGEMENT?

EXPLORATORY TESTING IS ONLY FOR AGILE TEAMS (MYTH)

IS EXPLORATORY TESTING ONLY ABOUT AGILE TEAMS?

INSPECT AND ADAPT

INSANITY: DOING THE SAME THING OVER

AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPECTING A

DIFFERENT RESULT

EMPOWER YOUR TEAM BY ALLOWING

CREATIVITY

LOOK FOR NEW WAYS OF TESTING

EXPLORATORY TESTING CAN‘T BE APPLIED TO LARGE TEAMS OR

MULTISITE TEAMS (MYTH)

CAN EXPLORATORY TESTING WORK FOR LARGE / MULTISITE TEAMS?

If you scale up Exploratory Testing to large teams and/or multi-site

it may become a problem.

CAN EXPLORATORY TESTING WORK FOR LARGER TEAMS / MULTISITE TEAMS?

CAN EXPLORATORY TESTING WORK FOR LARGE TEAMS / MULTISITE TEAMS?

Guidelines for Large / Multisite Teams Monitoring of progress (visible to everyone)

Work Progress is made visible – one dashboard, one agile board

Early resolution of any communication issue

Multiple means of communication (E-mail, IM, Screen sharing,

videoconferencing, SMS, telephone)

Web-based tools

Guidelines for Large / Multisite Teams

One collaborative workspace: centralized repositories that are accessible to all team members at any time. This enables easy report generation and insight into day-to-day work.

This can include systems for: Test executions/results Defect tracking Templates Checklists One Sprint management tool One document management repository One software configuration management environment One test management tool

CAN EXPLORATORY TESTING WORK FOR LARGE TEAMS / MULTISITE TEAMS?

CONCLUSION

EXPLORATORY TESTING IS NOT ONLY A TESTING TECHNIQUE.

IT‘S A CHANGE IN MINDSET

PUSH-BUTTON TESTER

MONKEY TESTER

Ravneet Kaur November 11, 2015

Ravneet Kaur

Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) Certified SCRUM Master (CSM)

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) PMI- Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

LKU Certified Kanban Practitioner (AKP) SAFe Program Consultant (SPC)

SAFe Agilist (SA) ISTQB® Certified Tester

ETSI Certified TTCN-3® Expert OMG Certified UML Professional™

Intel Certified Project Manager Intel Certified Expert Leader

Lean Agile SAFe Coach

ravneetkj@yahoo.com

0049-176-31043855