How do you learn and adapt to new domains and technologies when doing exploratory testing?

I created RST. This is not a bad summary, but the AI has made up that stuff about how RST is based on three principles. If I were to provide three principles that underpin RST, I would say: agency, responsibility, and expertise. This distinguishes RST from the popular approach to testing, which denies agency, encourages irresponsibility, and shuns expertise in favor of the frivolous and dangerous faith in automation and algorithms. Tech teams get annoyed by real testers doing critical thinking, so they like the idea of having robots do everything.

In my experience I totally agree with RST methodology, trying to break the system application to see area that needs improvement and refinement.

There is a precise definition of heuristic I have been using for 20 years. I wish people would catch on, instead of speaking about them in such fuzzy ways! Here is the definition: a heuristic is a fallible means of solving a problem. That’s it. That is precise. ANY means of solving a problem IS a heuristic if it is NOT guaranteed to work. Therefore, it’s not just “rules of thumb” (which is an empty statement; a meaningless metaphor about… thumbs?). A chainsaw is a heuristic for cutting down trees. It is a less useful heuristic for cutting a cake. We are surrounded by heuristics, but the power of the concept is not in the word itself, but rather in the implications: a heuristic process requires human guidance and judgment.

This is an old fashioned way of speaking about exploratory processes. By old, I mean would have fully agreed with it in 1995. Since then we who study testing have evolved. For instance, I would now say that there is nothing essentially “structured” about ET, except the structures of agency— exploratory testing means testing that is under the control of a tester as it is happening. This is as opposed to testing under someone else’s control, including the control of a script. An ad hoc process is highly likely to be exploratory. In fact, by my definition of testing, all testing is exploratory to some degree. If you take all control away from the tester you have transformed testing into algorithmic output checking. Congratulations, loser! ;)

You need to adapt to the changes, which means simultaneously learning, designing tests, and executing tests. You need to- * Gather context of the domain * Keep discussing with SMEs to learn more * Think like a user * Leverage session-based documenting of observations, questions, and potential bugs * Keep asking questions, don't hesitate The more you practice, the better you'll get at exploratory testing.