When Exploratory Testing should be conducted?

When Exploratory testing should be conducted.

After having just received the first Alpha version of a new product, a stressed Test Manager might say: “Give it a quick try with a Exploratory test now and then again just before we release”, meaning that everything else in between should be Scripted testing. This strategy might be reasonable since there often is a need of quickly showing the developers what faulting functions needs to be addressed first after the initial release. There is of course also the necessity of once again going over the whole system just prior to the final release to make sure that all the latest bugfixes hasn’t caused new ones. -Exploratory testing, being rather cost-effective and rapid, might seem a good option in those two cases.

However, with modern software testing becoming introduced on all levels of the development cycle, the initial “quick look” should not be necessary. The test team should have had enough time to write proper test cases & -suites while the program was being coded had they already been present at the planning stages. A final overhaul of the whole system could perhaps be more justifiable, especially if there is very little time left before the deadline. However, this would probably prove to be unsatisfactory in regards of quality, since if there is anything that the program should really be tested for at that stage, it should be its robustness and performance, not just basic functionality.