End users continue to stumble upon software bugs, despite developers’ efforts to build and test high-quality software. While traditional testing and quality assurance techniques are extremely valuable, we suggest that more focus should be given to the role of exploration in software testing. Exploration can bring direct utilization of knowledge and learning to the core of industrial software testing, helping to earlier reveal more relevant bugs. We describe the characteristics of exploration, the role of knowledge in software testing, and describe three levels of practices in exploratory testing. We propose that academics and practitioners focus their attention to exploiting the strengths of exploration in software testing and reporting existing practices and benefits form varying contexts, both from industry and academia.

Juha Itkonen (Aalto University), Mika Mäntylä (University of Oulu), Casper Lassenius (Aalto University): Test Better by Exploring: Harnessing Human Skills and Knowledge

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7155417/