What is manual testing?
Manual testing is when a person uses the software to check it works, without automated scripts.
Manual testing is flexible and catches problems that are hard to script, such as confusing flows, visual awkwardness or unexpected behaviour. It is also slow, inconsistent and does not scale with release frequency.
Most modern teams keep manual effort for exploratory testing and judgement, and automate repeatable regression checks.
Example
Before a launch, a product manager tries the new onboarding on their phone and notices that the progress bar is confusing, something no automated test would flag.
Best practices
- Use it for exploratory and usability testing
- Automate anything you check the same way twice
- Record findings as automated tests where possible
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