Teams of testers often get minimal feedback on the results of their exploratory testing. Since the introduction of Session Based Test Management, standard practice has been to save exploratory test sessions in the form of flat text files. These files require additional tools to search and parse, which limits access to statistical data. I wanted to close this feedback loop with my testing department, so I sought a solution. After investigating a few options, I decided SessionWeb, an open source tool by Mattias Gustavsson, was a good starting place. SessionWeb stores session data in a relational database, so we were able to easily add customizations and create additional reports that mattered to our test leads and management. The instantaneous, on-demand nature of the reports from our test sessions has greatly increased adoption of session based test management practices in our department. The goal of this talk is to help others realize the vast amount of potential data that exists within their ET session notes, and how to use that data to provide deeper and more meaningful insights into their teams’ testing strategies and results. Readers will learn how using a database to store test session notes and statistics can increase reporting capabilities and help generate meaningful statistics. This type of quick feedback can help testers increase adoption and acceptance of SBTM practices by all levels of their organizations.

18. @graemeRharvey