Exploratory Testing In Agile Software Development

In the Software Organizations, many believes that the Exploratory Testing is the future of manual testing – particularly for Agile processes. Exploratory Testing is the pivotal activity in an agile software environment as it helps to develop the Agile software Projects rapidly for software testers.

Let me give you the brief introduction to Agile methodology and Exploratory testing:

In Agile methodology, software is produced in small iterations. Each iteration consists of Requirements Gathering, Designing, Development, Testing, Deployment and Reviewing.

These steps should be accomplished in certain time frame, as it is time- boxed, which means that you have to gather requirements, plan, develop, test and deploy within a time. Because, if the developer gives you any code to test at the very last of the delivery week then you would need to either delay the date of the deployment or test effectually so that you do not forget any critical bugs.

Exploratory testing is all about the continuous learning approach. It don’t need any test scenarios or test cases to execute the outcome. You need only the random scenarios based on the past experiences and the understanding of the user requirements.

Exploratory testing is an effective and efficient testing approach which provides a systematic investigation process with the well-defined guidelines. It values the Tester as an vital part of the test process. Exploratory testing allows Testers to get familiar environment for testing. Because of the advantages of Exploratory Testing, many Industries gripping up by using Exploratory testing in Agile Projects. The advantages are as follows.

Time Management:
As I discussed earlier, Time is the main factor for Agile software development. In Agile methodology, Team gets only 2-3 weeks to finish everything. It is very crucial to understand earlier and test in the available time frame. So, the solution for this is to use Exploratory testing. It gives a better way to manage with the tight deadlines. In this testing, you can make a note of those test cases which can lead to a bug instead of describing each and every test case. That’s why, it is also called ‘freestyle testing’ as it can be done in limited available time.

Catches Important Bugs:

When you release the software (part), every month or every couple of weeks, you do automated regression testing, automated functional testing and do the testing manually also. This will be beneficial in case of already existed features. If while re-maintaining the software, if you added some more features, then again you have to understand the topics, then write test cases and finally automate them, which is time-consuming. Exploratory testing mostly focuses on the newly added features, which will be mainly more error-prone area. So, by performing this testing, you are not only debugging new features but also helping to meet the target.

Giving Effective Test cases:

This point is related to previous one. If you found 10 bugs in the newly added features, you can make a note of these scenarios and can make the test cases differently out of theses scenarios. These test cases will be effective enough to find the bugs importantly.

Understanding the Overall Application:

If you are using anything continuously, then you will get used to to that thing. Similarly, if you understand the requirements clearly and you are doing Exploratory test cases on each and every release then you will get moreknowledge and idea about the working of this testing.

Compatible with Small Duration Sprints:

Duration of Sprint in Scrum is very small, which lies between 2 weeks to a month. In such case, Exploratory testing will be more effective testing to find the bugs quickly so that development team can fix these bugs easily.

Looking at the above advantages of the Exploratory Testing, I will like to suggest you to use this testing at least once before the release cycle. It not only enhances the quality of the product but also makes the Tester more efficient.

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