TL;DR
Now that we know how to debrief exploratory sessions, let’s move forward and investigate James Bach’s idea of the Thread-Based Test Management. This is a part of the Exploratory Testing Pathway. Many thanks to Marcel who sublimed this great resource on his blog, That’s the buffet table.
Noun Vs. Verb
For James (and context-driven school of testing), testing is not an artifact, but and activity. Verb, not a noun. Testing is not a test case document or bug report. Testing is an exploratory activity noted in the session-based test management structure.
Thread Vs. Session
Thread is the generalized form of session. It is a set of activities that have the objective of solving a problem. Session mission is charter, and it can not be interrupted during the planned duration. The thread could be suspended, and it is not timeboxed.
Purpose
When you are in the CYNEFIN Chaos quadrant, Thread Based Test Management helps you to quickly move to a Complex quadrant.
A Todo List
You start with a to-do list that contains test facilities (what you test), test strategy (guidelines on how to test), and test management (how is testing organized). Testers decide what to do from the to-do list and go to work. They decide on sync intervals to report their finding.
A Status Report
The status report contains a to-do list, what was done from that list, tester that worked on to-do list items, and found issues.
Source Of Threads
Well, that is easy; just reference The Satisfice Heuristic Test Strategy Model.
End Of Thread
When you decide to cancel the task (for example, there is no more time to do it), this is cut off. Milestone reach (when you achieve something with your testing) is called a knot, the place where new threads are born and old one continues.
Conclusion
Test management is an old school to-do list, and you are right. But this is a to-do list about activities, not artifacts. We put in to-do list testing activities from The Satisfice Heuristic Test Strategy Model.
