3.6Heuristics for Exploratory Testing

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that guide your exploration. Some widely used ones:

SFDPOT (San Francisco Depot)

Created by James Bach:

Mnemonic	Focus Area	Example Questions
Structure	What is the product made of?	Modules, pages, components, APIs
Function	What does it do?	Features, operations, error handling
Data	What data does it process?	Inputs, outputs, stored data, data flow
Platform	What does it depend on?	OS, browser, network, hardware
Operations	How is it used?	Workflows, user personas, usage patterns
Time	How does behavior change over time?	Timeouts, scheduling, concurrency, state transitions

FEW HICCUPPS

Used for consistency oracles (how to decide if something is a bug):

• Familiar problems — does it have bugs you have seen in similar products?
• Explainability — can you explain the behavior to a user?
• World — does it match how the real world works?
• History — has this area had bugs before?
• Image — does it match the company's brand and quality standards?
• Comparable products — how do competitors handle this?
• Claims — does it match what the documentation says?
• User expectations — would a typical user be confused?
• Product — is it consistent with other parts of the same product?
• Purpose — does it fulfill its intended purpose?
• Standards — does it comply with relevant standards and regulations?