What is a key characteristic of exploratory testing?

Exploratory testing is characterized by its emphasis on the autonomy and creativity of the tester. In this approach, testers actively engage with the software, using their domain knowledge and experience to explore and discover defects intuitively. This method allows for flexibility and adaptability, enabling testers to respond to what they find in real-time rather than following a rigid set of predefined steps or test cases.

By prioritizing tester creativity, exploratory testing fosters a nuanced understanding of the application, allowing the tester to ask questions, explore different user scenarios, and uncover issues that may not have been anticipated in formal test plans. This dynamic and investigative nature is what distinguishes exploratory testing as a valuable approach in software quality assurance. Testers can leverage their insights to investigate areas of risk more deeply, leading to potential defect discovery that might be missed in traditional scripted testing.