Defect Driven Exploratory Testing - Formalized Approach for Exploratory Testing

Defect driven exploratory testing is another formalized approach used for exploratory testing. It is a goal oriented approach focused on the critical areas identified on the defect analysis study based on procedural testing results.
In procedural testing, the tester executes readily available test cases, which are written based the requirement specifications. Although the test cases are executed completely, defects were found in the software while doing exploratory testing by just wandering through the product blindly. A reliable basis was needed for exploring the software. Thus, defect driven exploratory testing is an idea of exploring that part of the product based on the results obtained during procedural testing. After analyzing the defects found during defect driven exploratory testing process, it was found that these were the most critical bugs, which were camouflaged in the software and which if present could have made the software not fit for use.

There are some pre-requisites for defect driven exploratory testing:
- In-depth knowledge of the product.
- Procedural testing has to be carried out.
- Defect analysis based on scripted tests.

Advantages of defect driven exploratory testing:
- Tester has clear clues on the areas to be explored.
- Goal oriented approach, hence better results.
- No wastage of time.