What it does
Derives risk-ordered charters (Explore.../with.../to discover...) with risk-based time-boxes and priority, supplies error-guessing/checklist/tour guidance and oracles per charter, and provides a session sheet to record bugs, issues, coverage and a debrief.
When to use it
High-risk or newly changed areas; as a complement to scripted tests.
Prerequisites
qa.config.yml (paths.*, risk_areas drive charter selection/priority); an area, or empty to default one charter per risk_areas.critical area.
Output
ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119-3 testware — exploratory charter set + session sheet -> docs/EXPLORATORY-<feature>.md.
Mechanics
How it works
- Read config and resolve the target (default to risk_areas.critical if empty)
- Derive charters per area, time-boxed by risk tier (critical 90m / high 60m / med-low 45m) with matching priority
- Guide each session with error guessing, checklist heuristics and named tours
- State oracles per charter — how a problem is recognized
- Produce a reusable session sheet; report counts of charters vs areas covered/deferred
Why it works
The theory behind it
Experience-based techniques — exploratory / checklist-based / error guessing (CTFL v4.0 §4.4) under session-based test management (CTAL-TA). Finds defects scripted cases miss and targets defect clusters (Principle 4); complements scripted coverage, never replaces it (Principle 1).
CTFL v4.0 §4.4 · CTAL-TA (session-based test management)
Example
See it in use
> /qa:exploratory "payments"✓ Correct when It gives time-boxed charters (mission, areas, ideas, oracles) for a risk_areas.critical area, with counts of charters vs areas covered.
Related commands
Used by