Error Guessing

It’s the “have we thought about if this happens?”

Error guessing leverages the tester’s intuition, experience, and domain knowledge to identify potential defects.

Experienced testers can anticipate or guess where errors might occur based on their knowledge of common software issues, complex flows, previous development mistakes, parts of the code that are known to be buggy, user interactions only known to those with deep domain and system knowledge.

Any tester can test based on the stated requirements, but they don’t have the domain knowledge to go further.

Especially useful when formal requirements or specs are incomplete. Error guessing can then be used to fill in the gaps.

Relies on creative thinking and experience to uncover defects that might not be identified through formal or structured testing approaches.

Opportunity for experienced testers to leverage their expertise to identify potential areas of risk.

Key points:

1. Tester’s expertise to anticipate areas where defects are likely to occur
2. Intuition base to use experience and creative thinking to anticipate potential errors.
3. Lack of formal requirement or specs
4. Focus on risky areas where errors are more likely to occur

People with high empathy tend to be great error guessers as they are great at putting themselves in the user’s shoes.

Interviewers are now looking for creativity and empathy as attributes.