Better Together: Group Exploratory Testing
Jeff Abshoff faced a most difficult challenge in 2015. His team size tripled, with testers of varying skill levels spread across six sites worldwide. The product was moving to a more frequent release cycle, was of poor quality, and had multiple key stakeholders. Features were incomplete, defects were not discovered until late in the cycle, and downstream stability and feature integration problems were common. Join Jeff as he shares his experience with Group Exploratory Testing, and discusses the positive impact this approach has had on his team and the ANSYS product. Jeff gives practical details on the tools used (web collaboration and a virtual lab approach) and the people involved (developers, product managers, writers, and testers). Jeff explains the many benefits that Group Exploratory Testing offers—improved collaboration, cross-team training, earlier and faster feedback, and better product quality.
Jeff Abshoff is a testing manager at ANSYS, Inc., a global developer of engineering simulation software. At ANSYS for more than eleven years, Jeff has worked on projects ranging from small, single team features to large cross-business-unit feature integration. With a strong emphasis on exploratory testing, he still regularly participates in testing new features. Jeff leads an international team of ten testers who are responsible for certification, performance, automated regression, integration, and exploratory testing. Jeff works to empower his team members to significantly impact product quality through early engagement in the design process; collaboration with peers, developers and other stakeholders; and exploration of the software under test.