When should exploratory testing be performed?

When Should Informal (Casual) Testing Be Conducted?

Q: What is informal (casual) testing and when should it be used?

A: Informal testing—also known as casual or unscripted testing—is performed without predefined test cases. It’s best used early in development, before major releases, after changes, and continuously throughout the software lifecycle to uncover usability issues, regressions, and bugs not caught by scripted tests.

📑 Table of Contents

1. Early in the Development Cycle

At the start of a project, when ideas are fresh and designs are flexible, casual testing helps catch early usability or logic issues before they escalate. It’s like laying the groundwork for a successful software product—ensuring no bad assumptions go unchecked.

2. During Iterative Development

As features evolve sprint by sprint, casual testing provides quick feedback loops that align dev teams with real user behavior.

It allows testers to evaluate:

Newly implemented features

Unintended side effects

Edge cases that structured tests may miss

3. Before Major Releases

Casual testing becomes critical when preparing for a product launch. A dedicated pre-release informal session can uncover last-minute bugs, UX glitches, or overlooked scenarios.

Think of it as a final rehearsal before the curtain rises.

4. After Significant Changes or Updates

Anytime a large feature, hotfix, or refactor is deployed, informal testing helps validate the ripple effects across the application.

This helps ensure:

No regression introduced

User flow remains uninterrupted

Performance stays intact

5. Throughout the Software Lifecycle

Casual testing isn’t a one-time event—it’s a continuous practice that complements formal QA.

Integrate it at all stages:

Design validation

Maintenance releases

Usability feedback

Legacy cleanup

This ongoing attention catches what tools miss.

FAQs

❓ What is informal (casual) testing? Informal testing is unscripted, unstructured testing done by testers to explore and uncover unexpected bugs or usability issues.

❓ Is informal testing the same as exploratory testing? They overlap. Both are unscripted, but exploratory testing often has defined charters, while informal testing is usually spontaneous.

❓ Who can perform informal testing? Testers, developers, designers—anyone familiar with the app. It’s especially useful with domain knowledge.

❓ When is informal testing most useful? Early development, post-feature updates, before major releases, and after bug fixes.

❓ Can informal testing replace automation? No—it complements automation by catching issues automation misses, especially those around UX, unexpected workflows, or edge-case scenarios.

Conclusion

Whether early or late in the cycle, casual testing is a lightweight yet powerful tool for surfacing hidden bugs and improving real-world quality.

At Testriq, we integrate casual testing throughout our agile process. Our QA teams blend it with exploratory testing and automation to ensure depth, flexibility, and real-user perspective.

The next time you're planning your test strategy, remember: timing your casual testing well can make all the difference.