Without Solid Automated End-To-End Regression Testing, Exploratory Testing is Largely Compromised

Test Automation and Exploratory Testing complement each other.

Zhimin Zhan

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Table of Contents:
· How is manual testing conducted on my own projects?
Automated End-to-End Testing (via UI)
Manual Testing
· The problems with Exploratory Testing when there is no automated E2E regression testing
· Exploratory Testing compliments Automated testing too
· FAQ

Exploratory Testing is not a new term, “coined by Cem Kane in 1984” (Wikipedia). During my 20+years’ experience in software development, few software projects had formally planned Exploratory Testing initially but might perform “manual testing” under the flag of ‘Exploratory Testing’ later. I have observed a pattern.:

  1. Detailed Manual Test Plan first
    This would mostly be irrelevant later.
  2. Test Design (manual testing)
    Manual testers create test designs (typically in Spreadsheets or some kind of vendor tools such as QualityCentre) and this phase usually takes some time.
  3. Start Test Execution
    It went OK for a few iterations, then …
  4. Drop the test design (mostly), just focused on regression issues and high-priority features.
    Basically, entering a fire-fighter mode. To make it…

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