A Syllabus to Support Teaching and Learning of Exploratory Test Design and Execution

Abstract

Exploratory Testing has become increasingly widespread in the industry, one of the reasons being the need to use agile approaches in the quality assurance process. In this context, it was observed that many professionals in the area are hardly able to apply this approach with systematic procedures because they understand it as an informal strategy. From a literature review carried out, a great potential for research was identified, focusing on the education of Exploratory Test Design and Execution. Therefore, this study presents the process of building a systematic teaching-learning approach to support the Exploratory Tests Design and Execution, training students to obtain skills, theoretical and practical knowledge relevant to the industry. For this, a mapping of assets involving the curricula was carried out: training reference for undergraduate courses in computing from SBC (Brazilian Computer Society), Computer Science Curricula from ACM/IEEE and the practical guide from TMMi (Test Maturity Model integration), analyzing the process area of Test Design and Execution. In addition, interviews were conducted with professionals to identify tools, work products and techniques used to make a teaching-learning approach adherent to industry practices and guidelines for theoretical knowledge in the academic context. Therefore, this work provides a set of skills favorable to teaching Exploratory Test Design and Execution, encouraging academic program managers and professors to use the knowledge generated to help them build disciplines containing a systematic application of exploratory testing.