This page supports the remote session on Exploratory testing
How this works
This session will be mostly exercises and conversations.
We'll have several short breaks
These materials will stay here
Ask questions in the chat, or through Menti
Warmup
Pop over to this page, on Menti. Add as many words which mean "exploration" as you like - feel free to re-use any words that are already in the word-cloud below.
Refresh this page to see updates, or go here for a stand-alone page.
Once we've done this, we'll use this Menti page to host questions. If you've got a question that you want to leave to the end, use the page to ask and we'll get there later.
Exploration 1
Subject
Converter v2 (part 1)
Group Exercise
- Play with the subject to become familiar with it..
2 minutes in groups, no public debrief.
In groups, look at the relationships between the information you put into the textbox, and the messages you get.- Become purposeful
5 minutes exercise, followed by 5 minutes collective debrief.
Pick any of:Debrief: prepare to talk about the approach you chose, and what you found.
- Identify the units used by the system. (i.e. meters, kilometers)
- Identify the textual transformations (i.e. "about")
- Identify the mathematical transformations (i.e. rounding)
- Seek any other ways (if any) that textbox input can influence the output.
Exploration 2
Subject
Converter v2 (part 1)
Group Exercise
10 minutes in groups followed by 5 minutes debrief.
- Explore the deliverable, looking at one of:
Judge what you find, looking for what you might trust, what you might doubt, and what is missing.
- system behaviours around unit boundaries
- system configuration beyond the units; i.e. dist, dp and oddnesses in configuration
- different patterns of output text
- ways that the numbers are changed
- the code as listed in your browser
- inadequacies in user stories and examples
informed by release notes and gaps or failures in testing
Debrief: have you been surprised?
Context
When you need context to inform your judgement, pick (and stick with) one of
- The conversion module wil be immediately integrated into an educational website for children aged 7-13.
- The conversion module will be passed to specialists in security and performance, and then will be used in a game with money prizes
- The tests for the conversion module will be double-checked against JavaScript compilers in various browsers, before being deployed in a tool suite to assist engineers modelling anything from cellular dyamics to satelite re-entry.
Wicked Problems
Subject
Converter v2 (part 1)
Group Exercise
5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes debrief.
In groups, consider what a 'complete' set of tests would look like, for this system. Then consider why that set is 'complete'. Debrief: prepare to talk about what 'completeness' means, to you.
Bulk Testing for Exploration
Subject
Converter v2 (part 2 - with bulk input)
Group Exercise
10 minutes, followed by 10 minutes debrief.
In groups, design collections of tests to dig further into the system.
Starting from information in your earlier investigations, (or the pre-filled list of tests if you didn't find anything interesting), design bulk tests (range + density) to explore behaviour over specific ranges. Use the list input (if you're generating tests in Excel) or the generated bulk input (to thave the work of generation done for you)
Debrief: prepare to describe the ranges over which you tested, and why. Tell us what you found - did it confirm or refute your expectations, did it surprise you, what might you do to go further.
Q&A
I hope that I can help by answering questions through the session. You may prefer to ask questions at the end.
We'll try asking questions in Menti (if it works), or in Toucan's group chat (if it's more convenient).
James Lyndsay, Workroom Productions
@workroomprds, +447904158752, LinkedIn