Exploratory testing is a testing approach where testers actively use their creativity and knowledge to identify issues that formal test cases might miss. This approach is invaluable for uncovering hidden bugs, assessing the usability of new features, and validating the behavior of complex systems.
However, there have been some challenges in conducting Exploratory testing in today’s testing tools. In this article, we will explore the challenges that testers usually encounter when conducting Exploratory testing and see how to overcome them.
1. Traditional Approach to Conducting Exploratory Testing
In most of the testing tools and platforms, exploratory testing does not have a separate section. For instance, TestRail, one of the most widely used test management tools, does not have a specialized feature for exploratory testing. Instead, testers need to use the Test Run feature, which is primarily intended for running a set of test cases, and bypass the detailed setup to run tests for this purpose.
Exploratory tests often cover both functional and non-functional aspects, such as UI/UX issues or user behavior that may not follow a clear, predefined sequence. The approach to conducting exploratory tests in another feature designed for formal software tests is much like a substitute solution, and it has led to two main issues for you and your team to manage the exploratory testing.
Messing up Data with Other Test Types
Managing data for both formal tests and exploratory tests in the same system can be challenging. While your team might implement a naming convention, such as adding a prefix like “Exploratory/Formal” to differentiate between the two. This solution only partially addresses the issue. If you want to display only the results of normal tests, or vice versa, you’ll need to set up filters to sort and display the right data.
The current way to distinguish between formal and exploratory tests is through the naming convention. However, what happens if a team member forgets to apply the correct naming or if errors occur in the naming process? This overlap of test types can still lead to confusion within the project. For example, exploratory tests might lack detailed steps, making them appear as incomplete formal tests. Or, you may struggle to understand why certain test cases do not belong to project requirements or do not categorize correctly.
Scattering Test Data
Another common tendency among testers when testing tools do not support exploratory tests is that they record their findings privately, such as noting them down in personal spreadsheets or documents.
When your findings are not in a centralized and structured way, test data becomes scattered across multiple locations. This makes it difficult for anyone to easily access the information later, and it leaves team members working in isolation rather than collaborating. As a result, valuable insights and knowledge are not shared, which can lead to inefficiencies and duplicated efforts as other testers may unknowingly repeat the same work.
Furthermore, by not logging findings directly in the test management system, it becomes impossible to trace issues or verify their context later on. This lack of centralized data makes it harder to track whether all issues identified during exploratory testing have been resolved, creating gaps in the testing process and increasing the risk of missing important defects.
2. Exploratory Testing in AgileTest
Many testing teams face these issues because traditional test management tools don’t offer dedicated support for exploratory tests. To address this gap, testers need tools that provide a specific area for exploratory testing, allowing teams to capture, organize, and track findings in one place.
Organize Exploratory Tests
In AgileTest, there is a feature section for Exploratory Test. Thus, it prevents the issue of mixing exploratory and formal tests in the same place. This means there’s no need to rely on naming conventions or manually set up filters just to separate your test types.
Whenever you want to perform an exploratory test, you can simply create a new Test Session. In each session, you can add a note to describe what your test is about, the status of the test, and some further comments to review. For example, you can note any aspect of your findings from UI/UX, performance check, and many more.
In addition, you can also record your time for each exploratory session. After clicking the counting button, the system will record the time you have spent on each test. When you finish your exploratory session, you can check the total elapsed time.
Track Exploratory Tests
Each session result is recorded separately, and your latest results are updated on the main screen for a quick overview. If you want to review more details, you can open any session directly to see all related information in one view.
If you want to see the progress or overall results of all your Exploratory sessions in a Milestone, you can go to the Milestones section and choose which one your Test Sessions belong to. Here, the test results are displayed with their test types (such as Formal Tests and Exploratory Tests). This helps you eliminate confusion between multiple test types.
In case you need to run an exploratory session for a specific requirement, you can create the session and link it directly to that requirement. Your Exploratory test results will appear separately on the “Test Sessions” tab, without mixing with other test types.
Store Exploratory Test Attachments
In each note of the exploratory test, you can add attachments to back up your findings. It can be an image that you capture during tests, a message of errors, or a link to your external files. Instead of documenting your findings in separate files due to unsupported tools, you can store your observations directly in the exploratory sessions.
After logging these attachments, they will appear in both your exploratory test sessions and on the Jira issues view. You and your team can quickly find it conveniently in the Jira board.
Final thoughts
Exploratory testing helps uncover issues that formal tests may overlook, but without proper support in testing tools, it can quickly become disorganized and difficult to track. Having a dedicated space for exploratory testing helps you to keep findings in one place, stay organized, and share insights across the team.
When exploratory sessions are structured and accessible, testers can focus more on exploring and learning from the product, turning individual findings into shared knowledge that improves overall quality.
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