Explore It!: Reduce Risk and Increase Confidence with Exploratory Testing

Cover......Page 1
Table of Contents......Page 8
Foreword......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 14
Preface......Page 16
 How This Book Is Organized......Page 17
 Online Resources......Page 18
Part I— Establishing Foundations......Page 19
 1. On Testing and Exploration......Page 20
  Two Sides of Testing......Page 21
  Essential Elements of Exploratory Testing......Page 23
  Working in Time-Boxed Sessions......Page 24
  Practice Sessions......Page 25
  Chartering the Expedition......Page 27
  A Simple Charter Template......Page 29
  Good Charters......Page 31
  Generating Charters......Page 32
  The Nightmare Headline Game......Page 37
  Practice Sessions......Page 40
  But Did You See the Moonwalking Bear?......Page 41
  Digging Deeper......Page 43
  Testability and Making the Invisible Visible......Page 46
  Consoles and Logs......Page 47
  Practice Sessions......Page 48
 4. Find Interesting Variations......Page 49
  Variables Are Things That Vary......Page 50
  Subtle Variables, Big Disasters......Page 52
  Identifying Variables......Page 54
  Practice Sessions......Page 60
 5. Evaluate Results......Page 62
  Never and Always......Page 63
  Alternative Resources......Page 65
  Approximations......Page 67
  Practice Sessions......Page 70
Part II— Adding Dimensions......Page 72
 6. Vary Sequences and Interactions......Page 73
  Nouns and Verbs......Page 74
  Random Navigation......Page 76
  Personas......Page 77
  Practice Sessions......Page 78
  Recognizing Entities, Attributes, and Dependencies......Page 80
  CRUD: Create, Read, Update, Delete......Page 83
  Practice Sessions......Page 86
 8. Discover States and Transitions......Page 88
  Recognizing States and Events......Page 89
  Diagramming a State Model......Page 91
  Exploring with State Models......Page 93
  Changing the Representation: State Tables......Page 95
  Practice Sessions......Page 98
  Diagramming the Ecosystem......Page 100
  Trust Boundaries......Page 105
  What If?......Page 106
  Follow the Data......Page 108
  Practice Sessions......Page 109
Part III— Putting It in Context......Page 110
 10. Explore When There Is No User Interface......Page 111
  Exploring an API......Page 112
  Exploring a Programming Language......Page 114
  Exploring a Web Service......Page 116
  Characterizing Bugs......Page 118
  Practice Sessions......Page 119
  Starting with a Recon Session......Page 120
  Sharing Observations......Page 123
  Interviewing Stakeholders to Gather Questions......Page 125
  Recording Your Findings......Page 127
  What About the Dreaded Unreproducible Bugs?......Page 128
  Practice Sessions......Page 130
 12. Explore Requirements......Page 132
  Getting Into the Requirements Meeting......Page 133
  In the Requirements Meeting......Page 136
  Charter During Requirements Discussions......Page 139
  Active Reading......Page 141
  Practice Sessions......Page 143
  Exploring as Part of Your Test Strategy......Page 144
  Paired Exploration......Page 148
  Discovering Systemic Sources of Problems......Page 149
  Estimating Exploration......Page 151
  How to Tell When You Have Explored Enough......Page 152
  Debriefing Stakeholders......Page 153
  Capturing Useful Nuggets of Wisdom......Page 155
  Practice Sessions......Page 156
A1. Interviewing for Exploratory Testing Skills......Page 157
 Paired Exploratory Testing as Part of an Interview......Page 158
 Assessing the Candidates......Page 160
 General Heuristics......Page 161
 Web Heuristics......Page 166
Bibliography......Page 167
 – E –......Page 168
 – N –......Page 169
 – U –......Page 170
 – Z –......Page 171