“Exploratory testing” as a term was coined by Cem Kaner in the 1980s, but skilled testers were doing exploratory testing well before the term was defined, and anyone who tests anything does exploratory to some degree. In late January 2006, ten skilled testers met in Palm Bay, Florida for the Exploratory Testing Research Summit (ExTRS), a peer conference on the Los Altos Workshops on Software Testing (LAWST) model. The agenda was to build and foster community; to discuss what exploratory testing meant to the participants; to exchange perspectives; to assess consensus and bring up disagreements; to learn about teaching styles; and to trade models and exercises. This work continued with many of the same participants and some new contributors in May 2006 at the Workshop on Heuristic and Exploratory Testing (WHET), in which the participants performed task analyses for Exploratory Testing, refined defintions, and performed several exercises related to the practice. This research and development work continues outside of the conference settings. In this presentation, Michael Bolton presents his report on some of the discussions and discoveries as the groups collectively learned more about what exploratory testing is, how our thinking about it is evolving, and how we can continue to do it better.

The participants at the ExTRS included James Bach, Jonathan Bach, Scott Barber, Michael Bolton, Rebecca Fiedler, Elisabeth Hendrickson, Cem Kaner, Mike Kelly, Jonathan Kohl, James Lyndsay, and Robert Sabourin.

The participants at WHETincluded James Bach, Jonathan Bach, Scott Barber, Michael Bolton, Tim Coulter, Rebecca Fiedler, David Gilbert, Marianne Guntow, Cem Kaner, James Lyndsay, Robert Sabourin, and Adam White.