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| ### Next Steps Open a Bug |
| Conduct Exploratory Testing ( 3 : RD : 1 : 1.1 ) ( 2 : CM : 2 : 2.1 ) Tester
Activity: Conduct Exploratory Testing
Tester
|  |  |  | Build |  |  |  | Stabilize |  |
|  | Participating Roles Responsible: Tester Consult: Business Analyst Subject Matter Expert Informed: Test Manager
### Overview Exploratory testing, also called ad hoc testing, is conducted by the tester assuming the persona of the user and exercising the product as that persona would. Exploratory testing can be a very important source of discovery, not just of bugs, but of unforeseen scenarios and quality of service requirements. Capture these in the backlog of the work item database, so that you can use them in planning future iterations. # Entry Criteria Build Enough functionality is ready to explore persona usage of specific areas of the product. Personas Personas are used to guide the exploratory testing. When: A build contains enough functionality to explore persona usage in certain areas of functionality. # Sub-Activities
1 | Timebox the Session | Set the period of time for the exploratory testing session. This period should be no less than a half an hour and no greater than two hours. Set the goals for the session. Start a session log.
2 | Meet Persona Expectations | Select a persona from the set of published personas. Run through the existing functionality to make sure persona expectations are met.
3 | Envision New Goals | Examine the challenges the persona faces. If the challenges might be too difficult to overcome, open a new bug or add new scenario or quality of service entries to the scenario list or requirements list. Make changes to existing scenarios or quality of service requirements and track the changes to appropriately reflect the new understanding. Look for new goals or missing functionality necessary to fulfill the product vision. Add new scenarios or quality of service requirement entries to the scenario list. Look for quality of service concerns and add new quality of service requirements to the quality of service requirements list.
# Exit Criteria
| New scenarios are added to the scenario list.
| New requirements are added to the quality of service requirements list.
| A test result is observed during exploratory testing that uncovered a bug in the product.
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