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How to Leverage Exploratory Testing to Uncover Bugs

Rob Mason
Applause

Development teams so often find themselves rushing to get a release out on time. When it comes time for testing, the software works fine in the lab. But, when it's released, customers report a bunch of bugs. How does this happen? Why weren't the flaws found in QA?

Welcome to defect fatigue, a common issue that occurs when testers execute the same repetitive automated and manual tests and as a result, skip over or miss defects. Testers need to get creative and investigative to find these well-hidden defects before they slip past QA and into the hands of customers.

Be an Investigator and Break Things

The purpose of exploratory testing is to find defects by breaking application functionality using manual and automated techniques without repetition. The "without repetition" piece is key, and the idea is that teams test to break, rather than confirm. Testers should manipulate connectivity, security, configuration settings, and different user navigation, among others. Other techniques include:

■ creating mind maps to find testing areas to investigate

■ forcing the application to function outside the known paths

■ triggering unexpected errors to discover missing error messaging paths

■ exercising back-end processing and third-party software integrations to see what can be interrupted or failed by unexpected user actions

If an application supports different user roles, testing should be done from these different perspectives and with their respective settings. Testers can also utilize existing browser development tools to find errors that are not always visible in the application UI, and to test and edit to see how the application responds.

Consider the People Element

Testers are also people that use applications every day. They should draw on their own personal experiences with typical application defects to try and break functionality. They should also consider the habits and behaviors of the members of the software development team.

As developers and product managers work more with an application over time, they start to develop habits that may influence how they interact with the software. For example, some developers may only develop code on a local machine while others may only do code reviews instead of pre-testing in a test environment. These are work habits that can lead to defects. On the product side, many product managers habitually create user stories and requirements in the same way, unintentionally leaving out a relevant workflow or configuration setting.

Finding hidden defects requires testing against the grain rather than verifying a function performs as expected. It also requires testing all possible paths that customers might take. Crowdtesting can supplement existing techniques by using real people to serve as proxies for customers. They can test for quality, user-experience and functionality outside the lab, and provide instant, useful feedback.

Testing repeatedly only to have bugs unearthed later by customers is a frustrating and potentially costly endeavor. When testers mix existing techniques with creativity and an understanding of human behavior, they will be able to dig deeper to find bugs and friction points that ultimately improve quality and customer experience before release.

Rob Mason is CTO of Applause

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How to Leverage Exploratory Testing to Uncover Bugs

Rob Mason
Applause

Development teams so often find themselves rushing to get a release out on time. When it comes time for testing, the software works fine in the lab. But, when it's released, customers report a bunch of bugs. How does this happen? Why weren't the flaws found in QA?

Welcome to defect fatigue, a common issue that occurs when testers execute the same repetitive automated and manual tests and as a result, skip over or miss defects. Testers need to get creative and investigative to find these well-hidden defects before they slip past QA and into the hands of customers.

Be an Investigator and Break Things

The purpose of exploratory testing is to find defects by breaking application functionality using manual and automated techniques without repetition. The "without repetition" piece is key, and the idea is that teams test to break, rather than confirm. Testers should manipulate connectivity, security, configuration settings, and different user navigation, among others. Other techniques include:

■ creating mind maps to find testing areas to investigate

■ forcing the application to function outside the known paths

■ triggering unexpected errors to discover missing error messaging paths

■ exercising back-end processing and third-party software integrations to see what can be interrupted or failed by unexpected user actions

If an application supports different user roles, testing should be done from these different perspectives and with their respective settings. Testers can also utilize existing browser development tools to find errors that are not always visible in the application UI, and to test and edit to see how the application responds.

Consider the People Element

Testers are also people that use applications every day. They should draw on their own personal experiences with typical application defects to try and break functionality. They should also consider the habits and behaviors of the members of the software development team.

As developers and product managers work more with an application over time, they start to develop habits that may influence how they interact with the software. For example, some developers may only develop code on a local machine while others may only do code reviews instead of pre-testing in a test environment. These are work habits that can lead to defects. On the product side, many product managers habitually create user stories and requirements in the same way, unintentionally leaving out a relevant workflow or configuration setting.

Finding hidden defects requires testing against the grain rather than verifying a function performs as expected. It also requires testing all possible paths that customers might take. Crowdtesting can supplement existing techniques by using real people to serve as proxies for customers. They can test for quality, user-experience and functionality outside the lab, and provide instant, useful feedback.

Testing repeatedly only to have bugs unearthed later by customers is a frustrating and potentially costly endeavor. When testers mix existing techniques with creativity and an understanding of human behavior, they will be able to dig deeper to find bugs and friction points that ultimately improve quality and customer experience before release.

Rob Mason is CTO of Applause

Hot Topics

The Latest

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...