exploratory-charter-author

Overview

A charter is the structured-but-open frame of an SBTM session: it tells the tester what to learn, not what to click. This skill is the authoring workflow - from a raw input (spec, diff, incident) to a filled charter card. The card format itself, the session vocabulary, and the time-box rationale are owned by exploratory-testing; the ready-to-fill card is its charter-template reference. This workflow fills that template - it does not redefine it.

Input: a feature spec / story, a diff / changeset, a bug cluster / incident postmortem, or a backlog item labeled "needs exploration." Output: a charter card the tester executes and reports against.

Step 1 - Frame the mission

The mission is the load-bearing field - one sentence telling the tester what to learn. Three patterns:

Pattern	Example mission
New feature	"Explore the new promo-code apply flow at checkout to discover usability issues, edge cases, and integration risks."
Refactor / change risk	"Explore cart and checkout after the cart-state refactor to find regressions in state persistence."
Bug cluster / risk area	"Explore the Stripe webhook handler with focus on retry / out-of-order delivery after the webhook-replay incident."

A mission is not "test the checkout page" (too vague) or "verify promo codes apply" (too narrow - that's a scripted test).

Step 2 - Scope areas, pick the time-box, suggest tours

Areas (3-7 per 90-min session) scope the exploration; they are what to look at, not what to assert. Derive them from the input: spec sections, diff blast-radius, or the bug cluster's common surface.

Time-box lengths (60 / 90 / 120 min) and their rationale: exploratory-testing.

Suggested tours, and how many to pick per session: the tours reference in exploratory-testing. The charter suggests; the tester picks. For the Bad-data tour, point the tester at malicious-payload-bank.

Step 3 - Wire the deliverables (PROOF debrief)

Sessions deliver a structured PROOF debrief into the exploratory-testing debrief template (its debrief reference); the debrief fields and the session-sheet structure are owned by that skill. The charter's deliverables block names three things:

PROOF debrief at session end.
Defects in BUG-* format via bug-repro-builder.
Coverage notes: which areas had time, which didn't.

Step 4 - Fill the charter card

Write charters/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<kebab-feature>.md. The minimal card (the full one, with oracle and SFDPOT sections, is the charter-template reference in exploratory-testing):

# Charter - 2026-11-03 - promo-code-apply

**Mission:** Explore the promo-code apply flow at checkout with boundary
inputs and stacked codes to discover discount-calculation defects and
error-state gaps.
**Created from:** STORY-482
**Target build / SHA:** (tester fills before session)
**Time-box:** 90 min
**Tester:** ________  **Date:** ________

## Areas (3-7)
- Code entry and validation messages
- Discount math with stacked codes
- Expiry at the boundary minute
- Cart edits after a code is applied

## Suggested tours
- Bad-data tour (payloads: `malicious-payload-bank`)
- Money tour

## Out of scope
- Load / performance (`k6-load-testing`), accessibility
  (`qa-accessibility`), cross-browser (`qa-web-e2e`)

## Deliverables
- PROOF debrief at session end
- Defects as BUG-* via `bug-repro-builder`
- Coverage notes: areas with time / areas without

The mission uses the SBTM "Explore with to discover " pattern (cited in the exploratory-testing charter template). Bach defines exploratory testing as testing while learning (satisfice.com), so the "to discover" clause is what makes it a mission.

Step 5 - Validate against the halt rules

Re-read the card against each halt rule below. For every hit, fix the card and check again; emit it only when none apply:

Check	Fix
Mission has no "to discover" clause	Rewrite it to name what to learn
Mission joins two goals with "and also" / two areas of the product	Split into two charters
Fewer than 3 or more than 7 areas	Merge narrow areas or split the charter
Time-box over 120 min	Split into two charters
An area was explored last session	Link that session's PROOF debrief and narrow the area to what it left open, or drop it
No out-of-scope list	Add one, even if it says "none"

Halt rules

Do not emit a charter that violates any of these:

No mission. "Explore X" is not a mission; it's a target. The mission must say what to learn.
Multiple missions in one charter. Each charter has one mission; multi-mission sessions get split.
Time-box over 120 minutes. Longer sessions diminish; split into multiple charters.
Re-exploring last session's area without its PROOF debrief. Duplicate exploration is a smell; review the previous debrief first.

Hand-off targets

Scripted steps rather than a charter → manual-test-script-author.
Post-session debrief → the exploratory-testing debrief reference.
Defects found during the session → bug-repro-builder.

References

Bach J. + Bach J., "Session-Based Test Management" - charter, session, debrief vocabulary: satisfice.com
exploratory-testing - owns the charter card template, tour catalog, session sheet, and PROOF debrief this workflow fills.

testland/exploratory-charter-author