Establishing exploratory testing using regular collaborative practice

As I am starting to apply for roles and interviews, I get to draw on examples of work I’m proud of. This example is high on my list!

While working at Ada Health, I established exploratory testing in our Medical Knowledge teams, coaching them over a number of months using collaborative working sessions.

I ran regular pairing and small ensemble sessions with the team, each time we would define and run a testing charter, take notes and take time at the end to reflect and improve our practice.

After 6 months, I had worked with most of the Medical Knowledge Engineers from each of the 3 teams, and collected some fantastic feedback:

1. They found pairing and exploring fun, finding real joy in work being more sociable in a way that their previous ways of working didn’t encourage.

2. There was a huge bump in knowledge sharing, even between different engineers in the same team, by practicing doing the testing together, and observing and asking questions.

3. By including more people earlier in the process, they find issues sooner and at the same time reduce bias introduced when a single engineer worked on their own.

Do you work collaboratively and pair or ensemble on your testing activities?

Do you facilitate exploration sessions with your teams, to share the joy of testing?

I’d love to hear your success stories, and if you haven’t got there yet, give it a go! Highly recommended.