Replicated experiment has shown that while scripted and exploratory testing result in similar defect detection effectiveness (the total number of defects found) exploratory results in higher efficiency (the number of defects per time unit) as no effort is spent on per-designing the test cases.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Itkonen|first=Juha|last2=Mäntylä|first2=Mika V.|date=2013-07-11|title=Are test cases needed? Replicated comparison between exploratory and test-case-based software testing|url=http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10664-013-9266-8|journal=Empirical Software Engineering|language=en|volume=19|issue=2|pages=303–342|doi=10.1007/s10664-013-9266-8|issn=1382-3256}}</ref>. Observational study on exploratory testers proposed that the use of knowledge about the ___domain, the system under test, and customers is an important factor explaining the effectiveness of exploratory testing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Itkonen|first=J.|last2=Mäntylä|first2=M. V.|last3=Lassenius|first3=C.|date=2013-05-01|title=The Role of the Tester's Knowledge in Exploratory Software Testing|url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6298893|journal=IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering|volume=39|issue=5|pages=707–724|doi=10.1109/TSE.2012.55|issn=0098-5589}}</ref>. A case-study of three companies found that ability to provide rapid feedback was a benefit of Exploratory Testing while managing test coverage was pointed as a short-coming.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Itkonen|first=J.|last2=Rautiainen|first2=K.|date=2005-11-01|title=Exploratory testing: a multiple case study|url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=1541817|journal=2005 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, 2005.|pages=10 pp.–|doi=10.1109/ISESE.2005.1541817}}</ref>. A survey found that Exploratory Testing is also used in critical domains and that Exploratory Testing approach is places high demands on the person performing the testing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pfahl|first=Dietmar|last2=Yin|first2=Huishi|last3=Mäntylä|first3=Mika V.|last4=Münch|first4=Jürgen|date=2014-01-01|title=How is Exploratory Testing Used? A State-of-the-practice Survey|url=http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2652524.2652531|journal=Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement|series=ESEM '14|___location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=5:1–5:10|doi=10.1145/2652524.2652531|isbn=9781450327749}}</ref>.
