Switching for Exploratory Testers

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Exercise

x minutes – prime your mind

Frameworks

Stopping Heuristics for Exploratory Testing

Let’s distinguish being stuck from stopping. Stuck is when you can’t move despite (something). Stopping is when you’ve run out of resource.

A great way to run out is when you’ve set yourself a small budget – a timebox, a stack of discoveries: running out means it’s time to move on and switch to a different location or approach.

Here’s my non-exhaustive list of situations to stop, and here’s a better list from Michael Bolton and James Bach:

• out of resource: time / money / licenses
• found enough (by number)
• found enough (a big-enough problem)
• found nothing of note after some time (before out of resource?)
• answered all the outstanding questions (you did have questions?)