What is Session-Based Testing?

Session-Based testing - method of testing software that combines reporting and exploratory testing, so you can quickly find defects, do a test design on the fly, perform management control and collect metrics.

Sometimes testers spend their working day on staff which is not belonging to test process (preparing the test data, authoring test cases etc.) so it’s hard to understand exactly how much time a tester spends on testing and how much time is spent on other things. In this case “Session ” will help us define it.

What is “Session” and how can it help us to streamline our testing process?

Session - a continuous unit of work aimed at testing.

“Aimed” – it means that each session is associated with what we're testing or what problems we are looking for.

“Continuous ”- it’s means that there are no significant breaks in the testing.

There are 3 types of sessions:

- Short session – lasts 45 minutes.

- Normal session – lasts 1.5 hours.

- Long session – lasts 2 hours.

Deliverables of session.

As we know exploratory testing is usually look like one amorphous task, so it takes a lot of time to remember what exactly have you tested, what action you did and wherein you need to describe it in your report.

The best way to prevent this mess – Session-Based testing uses its own type of reporting- Session Report.

A little bit about Session Report

Session Report – it’s information which was collected and recorded by the tester during the session. On the basis of these data can be based metrics and reduced overall testing and reporting on the project as a whole.

Session Report consists of:Section Description

Charter It is a goal or a plan for the test session. In other words- what needed to get done in following session.

Tester The name of tester which is performing test.

Activities not related to testing It describes what the test environment used by the tester. This section may include descriptions of hardware and software. Also, preparation of test data.

Scope of testing Features or functionality which was tested during the session. This section is closely related to Charter section, so it could be edited during the session.

Section Description

Start time & Duration Here is recorded when session has started and how long it continued. Here can be used following definition:Short, Normal, Long.

Detailed record about the test session Notes are described the entire path traversed by the tester during the session.Here can be described the test steps, test scenarios.

List of bugs The simple list with found bugs.Construction: Number of bug, severity, short description.

List of questions, thoughts, remarks Here tester writes his questions or issues which was occurred during the test session.

Metrics The percentage representation of the time spent on testing, the investigation of bugs and establishing the session.

Files Any files which was used or created during the test session.

How to simplify the process of creating reports and processing it?

Each tester can use Session-Based test oriented tools which will help you to create session-report and process it.

Here is some tools:

Name tools Description

Session Tester + Ability to generate descriptive html-report.- No ability to generate results in metrics.

Session Creator +Ability to generate descriptive text report.+Ability to generate metrics.+Easy to debrief the session results by Test Manager and left review comments. -Not easy setup.

Simple schema of test process using Session-Based testing.

Format of debriefing:-What happened during the session?-What did tester find?-Is more testing needed in this area?How do you feel about the session?

In conclusion

Session-Based testing helps to make exploratory testing more structured, turn it to manageable unit and reduce amount of ad-hoc testing. Session report it something like small documentation which help us to monitor progress of testing.