What is Adhoc Testing? Difference between Adhoc testing and Exploratory Testing

 Adhoc Testing

• When a software testing performed without proper planning and documentation, it is said to be Adhoc Testing.  
• Ad hoc Testing is an informal or unstructured software testing type that aims to break the testing process in order to find possible defects.
• Ad hoc testing is performed without a plan of action and any actions taken are not typically documented.
• Ad Hoc Testing implies learning of the software before its testing.
• Ad hoc Testing is done by executing the random scenarios and it is a form of negative testing which ensures the perfection of the testing.

Why do we do adhoc testing?

• The main aim of ad hoc testing is to find any defects through random checking.
• This can uncover very specific and interesting defects, which are easily missed when using other methods.
• Ad hoc testing can be performed when there is limited time to do exhaustive testing and usually performed after the formal test execution. 
• Ad hoc testing will be effective only if the tester has in-depth understanding about the System Under Test.

Advantages: 

• This method is very simple and can be performed without any training.
• It can be used when time period is limited. 
• This can uncover very specific and interesting defects, which are easily missed when using other methods.
• This testing can be performed any time during Software Development Life Cycle Process (SDLC)

Disadvantages:

• This method is not recommended, when more scientific methods are available.
• The actual testing process is not documented since it does not follow a particular test case. 
• It is difficult for the tests to regenerate an error in ad hoc testing.

Adhoc testing Vs Exploratory Testing

Adhoc Testing	Exploratory Testing
Ad Hoc Testing implies learning of the software before its testing.	Exploratory Testing, you learn and test the software simultaneously.
Documentation is not a basic need of this type of testing. The QA team always attends the testing without specific documentation.	Documentation is mandatory in Exploratory Testing. To assure the quality it’s necessary to documents the detail of the testing.
Ad hoc is about the perfection of the testing.	Exploratory Testing is more about the learning of the application.
Ad hoc Testing helps to find innovative ideas from the research.	It helps to develop the application.
Ad hoc is a technique of testing an application; this provides a significant role in the software Production.	This is an approach of testing that combines the learning test results and creates a new solution.
It mostly works on the business concerns and increases the knowledge about the application.	It categorizes the problems and compare them from the problems found in past. This helps to reduce the time consumption.
Adhoc testing is not important to execute by an expert software testing engineer.	This always needed to be done by expert.
It works on negative testing mostly.	This testing works on positive testing niche.

Please refer the below video on complete video on Adhoc testing: