Exploratory Testing

TLDR; When testing web apps we need to test the interaction between the browser implemented controls and our system. We don’t test the browser.

TLDR; Generate CounterStrings, random data from Regex, ranges of data, and strings made by concatenating repeated data.

TLDR; Technical Web Testing course has been released to YouTube as a 6 hour video.

TLDR; Updated code for Selenium WebDriver Course for WebDriver v4 free online and released Open Source Profile conference video for free.

Adopting a personal approach to Testing led me to adopt an exploratory approach to Testing, one driven by unique models, decisions, skills and sources of knowledge.

In this podcast I discuss a UK government guidance document on exploratory testing.

TLDR; Observation in real time. Interrogation after the act. Bringing Interrogation closer to Observation can help detect issues during a process. The depth of Observation and Interrogation changes depending on our knowledge of the system and technology. And we may not be done, if our observation was limited.

When I test I make a distinction between Observation and Interrogation and I’m going to explain what that means, and show you hands on example of how that distinction helps me improve my testing and the scope of of my testing.

TLDR; Testing uses models to target the system, and our information is constrained by the models we use and build. We can introduce variation to increase the possibility of finding information related to bugs. We have to take care not to develop false confidence.

TLDR; An example of modelling the application flow of a simple functionality. Modelling helps think through coverage and test ideas and think about what next for your testing.

I chose the very simple I Feel Lucky functionality on Google to use as an example application for modelling to support exploratory testing. I recorded the modelling session and explained my thought processes as I went.

During the investigation of a CounterString GitHub search issue, I noticed that the search button displayed for the form I was using did not trigger the search functionality when pressed. In this post I investigate that.