Exploratory Test Charter Template (Session-Based)
Session-based exploratory testing: charter and mission, session sheet with time split and notes, bugs and issues, debrief
उपयोग कैसे करें: Use it for each time-boxed exploratory session. Fill the mission as explore, with, to discover before starting and debrief within a day. The main pitfall is a session without notes, which cannot be debriefed.
प्रीव्यू
Exploratory Test Charter: [Charter ID] [Short mission]
Charter and session record for one time-boxed exploratory testing session. The charter sets the mission before the session; the session sheet records what the tester did, found and could not do; the debrief turns it into decisions. The format follows session-based test management as described by Jonathan Bach and James Bach (2000). Exploratory testing is an experience-based approach, the third family of test design techniques in ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119-4:2021 next to specification-based and structure-based techniques. Replace every
[bracketed]value and every row marked Example.
1. Charter
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Charter ID | [CH-QD53-07] (Example) |
| Mission | Example: Explore the ticket board with keyboard only and a screen reader to discover where agents cannot complete triage without a mouse |
| Areas | Example: Ticket board, assignee picker, status change |
| Risks addressed | Example: R-03 (late board rework), ACR-ISS-001 |
| Build and environment | Example: 5.3.0-rc3 on ST-2, NVDA with Firefox |
| Time box | [90 minutes] |
| Tester | [@tester] |
2. Session sheet
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Start and duration | YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM, [95] minutes (Example) |
| Time split (setup / testing / bug investigation) | Example: 10% / 65% / 25% |
| Charter versus opportunity | Example: 85% on charter, 15% on an opportunity (keyboard shortcuts) |
Test notes (Example)
- 10:05 Tab order on the board reaches each column header, then each card. Cards announce title and priority.
- 10:22 No keyboard way to move a card; context menu has no "Move to" option.
- 10:40 Assignee picker: arrow keys move the highlight, but NVDA does not announce the selected option.
- 11:05 Opportunity: shortcut "g b" opens the board even when focus is in a text field.
3. Bugs and issues
| Type | ID | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Bug (Example) | INC-QD53-0161 | Cards cannot be moved by keyboard (links to ACR-ISS-001) |
| Bug (Example) | INC-QD53-0162 | Shortcut fires while typing in a text field |
| Issue (Example) | ISS-07 | No test account with JAWS licence; JAWS not covered |
| [Bug / Issue] | [ID] | [Summary] |
4. Debrief
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Was the mission met? | Example: Partly: triage blocked by the board, so status changes were tested through the ticket form instead |
| What was not covered and why? | Example: JAWS (ISS-07); bulk actions (out of time) |
| New charters proposed | Example: CH-QD53-08 Explore bulk actions with keyboard only to discover focus loss |
| Decisions | Example: Raise INC-QD53-0161 to S2; book JAWS licence |
| Debriefed by and date | [@test-lead], YYYY-MM-DD |
Related templates: Test Incident Report (quality/test-incident-report),
Test Status Report (quality/test-status-report), Test Strategy
(quality/test-strategy).
Sources and licence note
Based on the session-based test management approach described by Jonathan Bach and James Bach (Session-Based Test Management, 2000, https://www.satisfice.com/download/session-based-test-management) and on the charter shape (target, resources, information) discussed in Elisabeth Hendrickson, Explore It! (Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2013). Both are cited by name only; this text is original. ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119-4:2021, Software and systems engineering: Software testing: Part 4: Test techniques, is named for its classification of test design techniques only. Official text: ISO, IEC and IEEE, purchase or licensed access: https://www.iso.org/standard/79430.html. Template licence: MIT.
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