12.03.2026 • 31 Min.

In this episode, I talk with Callum Akehurst-Ryan, a quality coach with nearly 20 years of experience, about why exploratory testing is far more than random button-pushing—and how teams waste it by using it in all the wrong places. Callum walks us through practical exploratory testing techniques that help uncover risks in non-functional requirements like performance and security, especially when no one has bothered to document what "good" should look like. We discuss how to structure exploration with timeboxes and risk-based scopes, when to turn findings into automated tests, and why retrofitting quality into existing systems demands a different software testing strategy than most teams realize.