Exploratory testing is defined as simultaneous learning, test design and execution by its one of the most prominent proponent, James Bach. Before 1990 and even till now, in some parts of the industry, exploratory testing is also known as ad-hoc testing.

This term was coined in early 1990’s by the context driven testing school community. Dr. Kaner emphasized the thought process involved in unscripted testing in his one of the best book on software testing called, “Testing Computer Software”.

According to the many experts in software testing field, in terms of finding important defects exploratory testing is much more powerful than traditional scripted testing. As compared to traditional manual scripted testing, it involves less overhead. With the continuously increasing adoption of agile methodologies, adoption of exploratory testing will increase in future.

If we look at the definition closely, it says that simultaneous learning, test design and execution. What does that mean, it means that testers are not equipped with the test scripts; they are working on the product with some specific goal. While working on the product, they will reveal some information and learn new things, which might change their test strategy and course of action. As compared to manual scripted testing, this practice is much more engaging and requires continuous attention and focus of tester. It also fosters the culture of learning, since tester needs to learn new things, continuously about the product, technologies, users and so on.

One of the main problems with implementing exploratory testing practices is the measurement. In many situations, management is interested in checking the progress and need some evidence of coverage and execution because of various reasons. To address this need, session based test management can be used, which makes it easier to audit and measure exploratory testing efforts.