Checklists to Support Test Charter Design in Exploratory Testing
This work addresses the challenge for software testers in creating effective test charters, but it is incremental as it builds on existing practices with structured support.
The study tackled the problem of designing test charters in exploratory testing by developing checklists based on factors and content elements elicited from interviews, resulting in the identification of 30 factors and 35 content elements to support practitioners.
During exploratory testing sessions the tester simultaneously learns, designs and executes tests. The activity is iterative and utilizes the skills of the tester and provides flexibility and creativity.Test charters are used as a vehicle to support the testers during the testing. The aim of this study is to support practitioners in the design of test charters through checklists. We aimed to identify factors allowing practitioners to critically reflect on their designs and contents of test charters to support practitioners in making informed decisions of what to include in test charters. The factors and contents have been elicited through interviews. Overall, 30 factors and 35 content elements have been elicited.