Face-off: Stuctured Testing vs. Exploratory Testing and Error Guessing

Exploratory testing and error guessing are valuable functional testing techniques. Like all other methods, though, they have limitations partly because they are based on the knowledge, experience, and intuition of the test engineer. If you primarily use unstructured approaches for testing, you risk wasting effort on redundant testing, testing in non-critical areas, and under-testing critical areas-all of which can lead to missed bugs or finding defects later in the cycle. BJ Rollison uses two case
studies to demonstrate the limits of unstructured testing and how fundamental test design techniques and gray box test design can improve the effectiveness of your tests. You'll correctly prioritize critical areas and uncover serious issues earlier and with less effort. The first case tests Weinberg's triangle algorithm from the design requirements and a C# implementation. The second
tests the "Save As" function of Notepad on Windows XP using the ANSI 1252 character set.