By James Whittaker

Ever look at a testing problem and wonder how to solve it? If so you know what it feels like to lack domain expertise. Sometimes this is user-oriented knowledge. Testing a flight simulator requires knowledge of how to fly a plane. Testing tax preparation software requires knowledge of accounting. Other times the knowledge is more problem-oriented. Testing a mobile operating system means understand how Wi-Fi and device drivers work. Whenever the bill of materials contains a testing problem that the risk analysis identifies as important, the expertise needed to test it needs to be on the testing team. Hire it, contract it, outsource it. Whatever it takes to ensure that people who know what they are doing and have experience doing it are on staff for the duration of the project. There is no technological substitution for expertise.

It doesn't matter how good you think you are at exploratory testing, if you don't understand how something works find someone who does.