The Use of Exploratory Software Testing in Scrum - Interview Transcripts

Exploratory testing is a very common, yet under researched, software testing technique. This research aims at increasing the understanding of exploratory testing and the way it is used within industries utilising SCRUM, the most popular Agile management framework. Another aim is to identify the factors that enable the tester to use this technique efficiently and effectively. The purpose of software testing is to find defects and to ascertain that the system behaves effectively, efficiently, and in a way that suits the users. Exploratory testing is a widely used software testing technique, yet its very definition is unclear. The descriptions of exploratory testing tend to be minimalistic, while pointing out the extensibility of this technique. Testing sessions that involve the tester executing a set of instructions on a system fall under the definition of exploratory, as much as instances in which the testers use no predefined instructions. More research is needed to provide further clarity on how exploratory testing is used in industry, within a SCRUM environment. A systematic literature review was conducted with a twofold aim: to clarify how exploratory testing is used in industry, and to identify the factors that enable successful exploratory testing. While the literature confirmed that techniques with different levels of structure (i.e., predefined instructions) share the denomination of exploratory testing, it was pointed out that what distinguishes this technique from the others is the will of the tester to explore, rather than confirm. Eight success factors have been identified by the literature: experience, domain knowledge, system knowledge, software engineering knowledge, personality, use of tools and right level of exploration. This research will attempt to answer the following research questions:

RQ1: How can efficient and effective exploratory testing be performed in SCRUM?

RQ2: Which are the factors that enable effective and efficient exploratory testing in SCRUM?

The decision to set the study in SCRUM comes from the fact that this Agile management framework is the most popular in industry and that, according to the literature, the relationship between Agile and exploratory testing. Also, the choice of a specific context adds significance to the findings.

This research received approval from the University of Sheffield Management School Committee (Ref: 049016)