Exploratory testing is a great way to find bugs of any sorts. However, after an hour of testing all possible edge cases you don’t know what you tried and what not. Rapid Reporter is a great helper to keep track of your activities.
You can download the executable here and run it right away – no installation required. You should move the downloaded file in its own folder, then all the data it collects will be saved where the executable is located.
When started, Rapid Reporter offers you a simple interface that stays on top of your other applications:
You must enter who you are and what charter or mission your exploration has. With those basics set, you can use your arrow keys (up or down) to switch between the types of entries you want to make. You can start with a Question, specify the Setup you need and define your exact Test. If something goes wrong, use Bug to come back later and report it to the developers.
The camera icon allows you to take full screen screenshots, that are automatically saved to the folder you run Rapid Reporter from. If you only need a part of the screen or want to highlight some important parts, you can hold the shift key while clicking on the icon. This opens the image in paint, where you can use all features to modify the image.
The timeboxing of those tests is an important part – otherwise you keep going and loose track of the time completely. Rapid Reporter prevents this by showing you a progress bar right in the background where you enter your notes. You can change the duration with a right click on the type of the note in the user interface. (If you right click on the note area, you get a list of all entered notes.)
When you are interested, you should read the documentation to find out even more little tricks you can do with Rapid Reporter.
At the end of your session you get all screenshots and a *.csv file with all your entries. You know exactly when you created a screenshot or wrote a note, what makes it easy to find log messages related to an error. If you marked all bugs with the corresponding category, you can spot them easily and have all the steps to reproduce them in your notes up to that entry. It is much simpler to report a bug when you have all those information at hand.
You certainly could do all that notetaking in Notepad. Rapid Reporter offers you just a little bit more structure and convenience, so that you don’t have to work with different tools on your own. Try it in your next exploratory testing session – it will not take much time and is a great help.