Exploratory testing is a very common, yet under researched, software testing technique [2]. Research has shown how this technique can provide a better insight about the system under test than other techniques [9], that it can find defects more efficiently than other testing approaches [1,5] and even aid the design of other techniques[3].
This research aims at increasing the understanding of exploratory testing and the way it is used within industries utilising SCRUM.Another aim is to identify and understand the factors that enable the tester to use this technique successfully. The decision to set the study in SCRUM comes from the fact that this Agile management framework is the most popular in industry [12] and from the suggestion to focus on the relationship between Agile and exploratory testing [9]. Also, the choice of a specific context adds significance to the findings [11].
This research will be conducted in a Sheffield based company,which produces data analytics software. The methodology will consist of three phases. During Phase 1 (Identification), SCRUM practitioners will be interviewed about the use of exploratory testing in SCRUM and the success factors of this technique. The aim of Phase 2 (Confirmation) will be to confirm the findings from Phase 1.This will be accomplished with focus groups and widely-distributed online survey. Finally, during Phase 3 (Verification), practitioners will take part to experiments to verify that the success factors identified during the first two phases enable efficient and effective exploratory testing.
The purpose of this research is to enrich the academic field of software verification and validation, but also to provide industries utilising SCRUM with useful guidance.

[1] Wasif Afzal, Ahmad Nauman Ghazi, Juha Itkonen, Richard Torkar, Anneliese Andrews, and Khurram Bhatti. 2015. An experiment on the effectiveness and efficiency of exploratory testing.Empirical Software Engineering 20, 3 (2015),844–878.

[2] Fredrik Asplund. 2019. Exploratory testing: Do contextual factors influencesoftware fault identification?Information and Software Technology107 (2019),101–111.

[3] Ceren Şahin Gebizli and Hasan Sözer. 2017. Automated refinement of models for model-based testing using exploratory testing.Software Quality Journal25, 3(2017), 979–1005.

[5] Juha Itkonen and Mika V Mäntylä. 2014. Are test cases needed? Replicated comparison between exploratory and test-case-based software testing.Empirical Software Engineering19, 2 (2014), 303–342.

[9] Torvald Mårtensson, Daniel Ståhl, Antonio Martini, and Jan Bosch. 2021. Efficient and effective exploratory testing of large-scale software systems.Journal of Systems and Software174 (2021), 110890.

[11] Colin Robson and Kieran McCartan. 2016.Real world research : a resource forusers of social research methods in applied settings(fourth edition. ed.). Wiley, Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom.

[12] Nelson Tenório, Danieli Pinto, Marcio José Silva, Iara Carnevale de Almeida,and Flávio Bortolozzi. 2020. Knowledge management in the software industry:how Scrum activities support a knowledge management cycle.Navus: Revista de Gestão e Tecnologia10 (2020), 20