qa-explore

name	qa-explore
description	Exploratory and manual testing to find what automation misses - session charters, bug-hunting heuristics, every state and edge case. Use when probing a build by hand for defects before sign-off.

Exploratory testing

Structured manual probing to find defects the automated suite never anticipated. Time-boxed, charter-driven, and recorded - not aimless clicking. The mindset is to break it, not to confirm it works.

Use when hands-on bug-hunting a build or feature. For writing automated tests see qa-test; for the formal sign-off and bug reports see qa-review.

Steps

1. Charter each session. State a goal ("explore to discover "), a time-box (~60-90 min), and scope. A charter makes exploration systematic and reviewable.
2. Work heuristics and tours. Probe boundaries (min/max/zero/empty/huge), CRUD round-trips, interruptions (cancel, back, refresh, double-submit, kill the network mid-action), data variety (unicode, RTL, very long, injection-looking), and sequencing. "Tour" by feature, by data, and by user role.
3. Force every state. Empty, loading, error, permission/logged-out, offline, slow network, and edge inputs - the same states design-draft specifies. Most defects live here, not on the happy path.
4. Use oracles. A bug is a violation of a credible expectation: the acceptance criteria/spec, internal consistency, comparable products, or plain reasonableness. Name the oracle you violated.
5. Record as you go. What you did, what you saw, and exact repro steps; capture it while fresh. Log new questions as follow-up charters.
6. Vary the angle. Different users, devices, viewports, inputs, and timing; chase the surprising result, not the scripted path.

Gotchas

• Confirmation bias finds fewer bugs: trying to prove it works beats nothing; trying to break it beats everything.
• Happy-path-only misses most defects - errors, edges, and interruptions are where they hide.
• An unrecorded bug is nearly worthless; if you cannot repro it later, it cannot be fixed.
• Exploratory is not unstructured - without a charter and heuristics it is just clicking around.
• Found bugs are an input to qa-review, not the sign-off itself; hand them over with repro and severity.