Exploratory testing: An empirical study approach

• Rudolf Ramler
• Dietmar Winkler

Exploratory testing facilitates concurrent learning, test design, and test execution. It has recently gained much attention from practitioners arguing about the numerous benefits an exploratory approach to software testing provides. Yet up to now only little empirical data on the performance of exploratory testing is available. In this paper we give an overview of frequently cited characteristics of exploratory testing and we discuss the basic outline of an empirical study to evaluate the applicability and performance of exploratory testing.