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Everything about Exploratory testing

Software testing approach

Exploratory testing is an approach to software testing that is concisely described as simultaneous learning, test design and test execution. Cem Kaner, who coined the term in 1984, defines exploratory testing as "a style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the quality of his/her work by treating test-related learning, test design, test execution, and test result interpretation as mutually supportive activities that run in parallel throughout the project." Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: Exploratory testingA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Exploratory Field Testing of Passive Exoskeletons in Several Manufacturing Environments: Perceived Usability and User AcceptanceInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: Effects of sex differences and hippocampal lesions on exploratory behaviors and wayfinding performance in rats in a novel environmentThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: Multiple Testing for Exploratory ResearchCited 154 times
  5. Go sideways: Software testing controversiesA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: Manual testingA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics