Planned Ad hoc Testing

Test execution can be categorized into two broad categories:

1. Scripted test execution
2. Non scripted test execution

Scripted test execution is about execution of pre written test cases and test script while non scripted test execution includes exploratory and ad hoc testing.

Importance of Non Scripted testing

• Generally majority of test planning works include writing test cases or test script but for the bugs found we can not say the same thing. Majority of the bug found is via non scripted test execution rather then scripted test execution.

• Do we expect end-users to just execute the test script written by Test Engineer?

• Test script execution may be affected by blindness for expected result where tester looks only for the expected result and might ignore the other apparent bug.

• Not all projects have enough documentation to begin test case writing.

For non scripted testing we can say this is the technique which does not require any test documentation, try to follow the end user flow and try to cover all apparent and non apparent bug. Hence, majority of the bug are found by Non Scripted test execution

If we can say that majority of the bugs found are via Non Script test execution then for a effective testing process we need a planned ad hoc test approach and following are some pointers which can lead to a planned ad hoc test approach

ü Getting user’s feedback of previous release: Having user feedback from customer care unit, various groups or blogs can help in focusing the efforts in ad hoc testing in right direction. Often we ignore the area in our test cases creation which is part of end user flow. Sometime this information is readily available with Customer Care or we can found users to discuss about the problem areas in various groups, blogs and community sites.

ü Feature Swap: If we planned for feature swap for exploratory testing we could get better result if we swap feature in such a way that tester gets to test the feature for which he was not executing test script this would helps in getting a new eye for feature and would eliminate chances of user getting influenced by test cases he has seen and executed

ü Bug Hunt: Bug hunt is another approach for performing ad hoch testing. If done at correct stage and with proper planning bug hunt can provide bugs which normally we do not see in our regular test case execution

ü Bug density: If we found a bug around any area in product chances of having another uncovered bug in same area increases.