Software Testing, 4th Edition

Chapter 18

Exploratory Testing

Consider a person admitted to a hospital emergency room (ER) who has trouble breathing. The ER physician is tasked with identifying the underlying problem and then devising a medical response. How does the ER physician proceed? First, a case history of relevant information about the patient is gathered. The next likely step is a few broad-spectrum tests that are intended to eliminate common causes of the breathing difficulty. Knowledge obtained from one test usually leads to follow-up, more specific tests. Throughout this process, the ER physician is guided by extensive experience and domain knowledge. This same pattern applies to software testing in the process known as exploratory testing.

18.1 Exploratory Testing ...