This document discusses various techniques for exploratory testing, including thinking outside the box when testing. It provides examples of riddles and clues to stimulate new perspectives, and suggests pretending to take on different user roles to test from various viewpoints. The document also outlines heuristics like HICCUPS and considerations for testing various elements of a product like structure, function, and interfaces. It concludes with an exploratory testing dice roll technique to help guide exploratory sessions.

1. Exploratory Testing, Part 3
Let’s get a little deeper into the weeds

2. But first, some riddles
Let’s think outside the box a little

3. Joe wants to go home but can't, because
the man in the mask is waiting for him.

4. A man rides into town on Friday. He stays
three nights and leaves on Friday.

5. The Chevrolet Nova was a successful car in
many countries, but not in Mexico. Why
not?

6. Name 5 things you can do with a
pencil other than write

7. So, how do we think outside the box when
testing?
 Try to be aware when you are in a testing “rut”
 Repeating the same input data
 Not taking good notes
 Diving down a rabbit hole
 Not paying attention to what may have caused a bug to happen so that you can reproduce it
 Checking only what is in a requirement
 When this happens, it is time to take a step back and get a fresh perspective
 How can you know what you don’t know?

8. “Beginner’s mind”
 Why do new testers always seem to find a bunch of bugs?
 They are in a state of “beginner’s mind”: they don’t understand the world around
them yet, and they are in a heightened state of
 Observation
 Experimentation
 Pattern matching

9. Pretend to be someone else
 Not just the normal users of the system, and expected roles …
 A slow reader
 An angry user
 A malicious user
 A new user
 A distracted or bored user
 A user with a disability

10. Clueing Techniques
 Clueing techniques give you one hint, and your objective/experience/context will
use the clue to progress and get unstuck.
 Let’s look at a few examples of heuristics in testing

11. Oracles and Heuristics
 HICCUPS
 History of the product
 Image of the product
 Claims made about the product
 Comparable products
 User expectations
 Purpose of the product
 Product itself (i.e. similar things work differently elsewhere)
 Statutes or internal standards
Content from Mike Kelly: http://testingreflections.com/node/2635

12. Product Elements
 Structure: Everything that comprises the physical product.
 Function: Everything that the product does.
 Data: Everything that the product processes.
 Interfaces: Every conduit by which the product is accessed or expressed.
 Platform: Everything on which the product depends (and that is outside your
project).
 Operations: How the product will be used.
 Time: Any relationship between the product and time.
Content from James Bach, http://www.satisfice.com/tools/htsm.pdf

13. Quality Criteria
 Capability: Can it perform the required functions?
 Reliability: Will it work well and resist failure in all required situations?
 Usability: How easy is it for a real user to use the product?
 Charisma: How appealing is the product?
 Security: How well is the product protected against unauthorized use or intrusion?
 Scalability: How well does the deployment of the product scale up or down?
 Compatibility: How well does it work with external components & configurations?
 Performance: How speedy and responsive is it?
 Installability: How easily can it be installed onto its target platform(s)?
 Development: How well can we create, test, and modify it?
Content from James Bach, http://www.satisfice.com/tools/htsm.pdf

14. Exploratory Testing Dice Roll
 http://testing.gershon.info/exploratory-dice-roll/
Content from James Bach, http://www.satisfice.com/tools/htsm.pdf