Q20 of 38 · Manual & exploratory
What is a test charter, and how would you structure one for a 90-minute exploratory session?
Short answer
Short answer: A test charter is a one-paragraph mission for an exploratory session: what to explore, with what resources, looking for what kind of information. It scopes the session and forces a goal beyond 'click around.'
Detail
A test charter answers four questions: what (the area or feature being explored), with (the resources — tools, accounts, data), to discover (the type of information you're hunting), and in (the time-box).
The classic template (Elisabeth Hendrickson's "Explore It!" formulation) reads:
Explore [target] with [resources] to discover [information].
The 90 minutes break down approximately as:
- 0–10 min orient — read the spec, set up accounts, decide where to start.
- 10–70 min exploration in 15–20 minute mini-sessions, each with a slightly narrower focus.
- 70–85 min capture — write up issues, organise notes by area, mark questions.
- 85–90 min debrief — what was covered, what wasn't, what I'd test next, anomalies to investigate.
The signal of a good charter is that two testers given the same charter would explore differently but cover roughly the same ground. Too narrow ("test the discount field") and it's a script; too broad ("test the whole app") and it's ad-hoc.
// EXAMPLE
charter.md
## Charter — cart update flow, 90 min
Explore the cart update flow on Chrome and Safari, with three test
accounts (free, premium, suspended), to discover state-inconsistency
bugs and accessibility issues.
Time-box: 90 minutes
Out of scope: payment, fulfilment
### Mini-sessions
- 0–15 Single-item cart, basic add/remove
- 15–30 Cart at quantity boundaries (0, 1, max, max+1)
- 30–45 Concurrent edits in two tabs
- 45–60 Auth state changes mid-cart (logout, role change)
- 60–75 Notes & follow-up questions
### Debrief (75–90)
- Coverage map: which states & roles touched
- Open questions to PM
- Bugs filed
- What I'd test next session