Exploratory Testing is one of the most valuable practices in software testing, especially when we want to discover issues that impact user experience. But at the same time, it is also one of the most demanding approaches in terms of time and focus.
In a world where product development life cycles are becoming shorter and where QA teams need to ensure faster releases without compromising quality, a question arises: How can we gain time without sacrificing the depth of exploratory tests and their findings?
Here is where AI might help you as an external assistant: not to replace testers’ creativity and critical thinking, but to speed up preparation tasks, investigation, and organization, which consume time and can deviate the focus from what's important: curiosity, insight, and thoroughness.
Why Exploratory Testing still needs time
Exploratory testing demands testers analyse the product as a real user, identifying unexpected risks and asking questions that an automated script probably won’t anticipate.
We all know that automation improves efficiency and eliminates repetitive regression testing. When we're working with Exploratory Testing, we can find critical issues that could potentially compromise user experience. This is where your team can explore features with curiosity and business knowledge, ensuring your product is not only right but also useful and ready for the real world.
However, one of the significant challenges QA teams face today is the lack of time to explore deeply. Tight deadlines, quicker release cycles, and competitive priorities can negatively impact Exploratory Testing by deeply reducing exploration time, which, in reality, should be one of the most strategic stages in quality assurance.
Considering all these factors, how can we ensure that Exploratory Testing gets the attention it needs, even in a faster release cycle?
How AI can assist Exploratory Testing without replacing it
Although artificial intelligence can't fully substitute the intuition and critical eye of a human tester, it can work as a valuable assistant to optimize your team's time and overall Exploratory Testing quality. Instead of automating the entire process, AI might help you prepare, organize, and boost exploration, leaving you focused on what really matters: the creative analysis of your product.
For instance, AI can help you:
- Analyze historic defect data and suggest areas where your product needs more attention
- Identifying patterns that seem uncommon or anomalies in reports
- Aiding in generating testing hypotheses based on user behavior
- Organizing results of prior tests by offering insights to improve planning for upcoming sessions.
This way, AI can act as a copilot that can guide and inspire you without substituting the human element, which is essential for Exploratory Testing since it ensures diligence and the deep knowledge that your team has of your product.
Leveraging AI prompts for Exploratory Testing
Some QA teams have already started integrating AI assistants, like ChatGPT, to give exploratory testing an extra hand. One way they're doing this is by using prompts that can help accelerate test generation, identify hidden risks, and build flexible charters—all of this without losing the human touch that Exploratory Testing needs.
This practice arises because although Exploratory Testing is essentially human activity, AI might be useful as a quick source for generating and organizing tests, which can ultimately reduce time spent and repetitive tasks.
If you want to start using AI prompts for your Exploratory Testing efforts, check out our ebook, “ChatGPT Prompts for Exploratory Testing.” It contains practical tips on using prompts that might help you accelerate your testing efforts, such as task creation, highlighting risks, and facilitating adaptation to changes during the development life cycle.
If you want to improve your Exploratory Testing, this eBook is valuable, considering the rise of AI in the software testing industry.
How to integrate AI Assistants in Exploratory Testing: best practices
Integrating AI assistants in Exploratory Testing might be a transformative step, but it requires a careful approach to maximizing benefits without compromising human quality to ensure AI becomes a true ally in your testing efforts. Consider these practices:
- Start with a focus on assistance: use AI and specific parts of the process, for instance, if you're generating initial testing hypotheses or organizing results - this could be a good place to start. Doing this allows your team to evaluate the real impact and adjust the AI use if necessary.
- Keep human control: creativity, judgment, and testers' intuition are irreplaceable. Use AI to accelerate repetitive tasks and gain insights, but remember that your team should always make the final decision and perform critical analysis.
- Continuously adjust prompts and tools: The quality of AI suggestions generated will improve with regular feedback and adjustments, considering the questions your team asks the assistant. Encourage your testers to experiment and adapt their interactions with AI.
- Establish a natural flow of communication between your team and AI: promote a culture where testers can share discoveries and difficulties related to these external tools so they can evolve and progress.
- Be mindful of security and privacy: When using external tools, ensure that all sensitive data regarding the product and your company is protected. This will help you avoid risks that might compromise data breaches.
By following these rules, your team can easily adopt an AI assistant tool and transform Exploratory Testing, saving time without sacrificing testing quality.
AI support for better and faster Exploratory Testing
To ensure real product quality, teams need to continuously adapt to improve, and AI in software testing can be seen as a strategic ally. It's not about replacing testers but facilitating their work with quicker insights and improved organization, allowing them to focus on more critical areas of the testing processes that only a tester’s knowledge offers.
If you want to start exploring AI prompts, you can check our eBook, “ChatGPT Prompts for Exploratory Testing.” There, you can find practical suggestions to help your team start experimenting with AI assistants today.
