Quality Assurance

Ad Hoc Testing

What is ad hoc testing
When to use ad hoc testing
Limatations
How to execute
Best practices
Conclusion

AGENDA

WHAT IS AD HOC TESTING

Unplanned

No planning is required for performing ad hoc testing.

Unstructured

Testing is performed on the fly, without prior planning

No documentation

It doesn’t require any documentation or formal test case execution

When to Use ad hoc testing

1

When there is limited time available for testing

2

Before the formal testing to identify defects and issues quickly

3

After the formal testing

4

Ad hoc testing can be used as a part of acceptance testing

5

To test specific areas of the software that are known to be error-prone or have a history of defect

Lack of Coverage

Since ad hoc testing is unsystematic, there is a high risk of missing important areas of the application. Critical functionalities might not be thoroughly tested

Non-repeatable

Without documented test cases or steps, reproducing tests or bugs can be challenging.

Dependence on Tester
Skill

The effectiveness of ad hoc testing heavily depends on the tester’s experience, intuition, and knowledge of the application. Less experienced testers may not identify all critical issues.

Inconsistent Results

Different testers may achieve different results because there is no standardized procedure to follow. This can lead to inconsistencies in testing outcomes and difficulty in measuring progress.

LIMITATIONS

How to Execute Adhoc Testing

BUDDY TESTING

Tester and developer work in parallel and find defects in the same module of the product under test. This allows the features to be viewed in a broader scope by both parties.

DEV + QA

Pair testing

Two testers brainstorm ideas to detect more defects and get the best results working on one module.

qa + QA

monkey testing

Tester works alone and acts as creatively as possible. The main goal is to find all the bugs and inconsistencies with the planned behavior. To do this, the tester has try to break the software.

QA

Good software knowledge
Find Out Error-Prone Areas
Focus on targeted areas
Error guessing
Record defects

Best Practices to Conduct Adhoc Testing

Summary

To sum it up, Ad hoc testing serves as a great tool for QA engineers to ensure software quality and use a creative approach at the same time. Without the necessity to write a test plan or follow technical documentation, this type of checking software has a variety of advantages like:

It allows to find difficult to reproduce and elusive defects that could not be found using standard test scripts
It is easy to start and implement with no planning and documentation needed
It can be executed at any stage of the Software Development Life Cycle
Time and cost savings
Improved testing coverage