QA Expert

Quality assurance specialist for developing comprehensive testing strategies and quality gates.

When This Skill Activates

Activates when you:

• Ask for QA strategy
• Need quality gates
• Want to improve test coverage
• Plan testing approach

Quality Assurance Strategy

1. Risk-Based Testing

Prioritize testing based on business impact, likelihood, change surface, and existing production evidence. The approaches below are examples to tailor, not universal requirements:

| Risk Level | Testing Approach | |------------|------------------| | Critical (Money, Security, Data) | Strong deterministic coverage; add resilience testing when the system supports it | | High (Core features) | Full E2E, integration, unit | | Medium (Secondary features) | Integration, unit | | Low (Edge features) | Unit tests only |

2. Testing Portfolio

Choose the mix from system boundaries and failure cost. Do not enforce a fixed ratio when a repository's architecture or existing test strategy indicates a different shape.

| Level | Example Starting Mix | Focus | |-------|------------|-------| | E2E | 10% | Critical user journeys | | Integration | 30% | API interactions | | Unit | 60% | Business logic, utilities |

Treat this table as an illustration only. Derive the actual portfolio from the repository's architecture, risk profile, SLOs, and existing quality gates.

3. Quality Gates

Pre-Commit

bash
- Lint: npm run lint
- Format check: npm run format:check
- Type check: npm run type-check
- Unit tests: npm run test:unit

Pre-Merge

bash
- All tests: npm test
- Coverage threshold: use the repository gate or agree a risk-based target
- Security scan: npm audit
- License check: npm run check:licenses

Pre-Production

bash
- Full test suite: npm run test:all
- E2E tests: npm run test:e2e
- Performance tests: npm run test:perf
- Security audit: npm audit --audit-level high

Test Categories

Functional Testing

Purpose: Verify features work as specified

• Happy path testing
• Edge case testing
• Boundary value analysis
• Error handling

Non-Functional Testing

Performance

• Derive latency and throughput targets from the current SLO, baseline, workload, and user journey
• Memory usage stable
• No memory leaks

Security

• OWASP Top 10 coverage
• Penetration testing
• Dependency vulnerability scan
• Secrets detection

Compatibility

• Browser testing (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
• Device testing (Mobile, Desktop, Tablet)
• OS testing (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Version testing (N-1 browser versions)

Regression Testing

• Previous bugs don't reappear
• New features don't break existing features
• Performance doesn't degrade

Exploratory Testing

• Find unexpected issues
• Test edge cases
• User experience issues

Test Planning

Test Plan Template

markdown
# Test Plan: [Feature Name]

## Overview
[Feature description]

## Scope
[In scope / Out of scope]

## Test Cases

### Functional
- [ ] TC001: [Description]
- [ ] TC002: [Description]

### Integration
- [ ] TC101: [Description]

### E2E
- [ ] TC201: [Description]

## Test Data
[Required test data]

## Environment
[Test environment setup]

## Schedule
[Testing timeline]

## Exit Criteria
[Definition of done]

Quality Metrics

Use existing project gates first. If none exist, establish a baseline and agree targets with the owner; the values below are illustrative examples, not default acceptance criteria.

Code Quality

• Test Coverage: > 80%
• Cyclomatic Complexity: < 10 per function
• Code Duplication: < 5%
• Technical Debt Ratio: < 5%

Defect Metrics

• Defect Density: < 1 defect per 1000 LOC
• Critical Defects: 0
• High Defects: 0
• Medium Defects: < 3

Test Metrics

• Test Pass Rate: > 95%
• Flaky Tests: 0
• Test Execution Time: < 10 minutes

Automation Strategy

Automate When

• Test is run frequently
• Test has deterministic results
• Test is stable
• ROI justifies automation cost

Don't Automate When

• Test requires human judgment
• Test is exploratory
• Test is one-time only
• Test changes frequently

Bug Report Template

markdown
## Bug Summary
[One-line summary]

## Severity
Critical / High / Medium / Low

## Steps to Reproduce
1.
2.
3.

## Expected Behavior
[What should happen]

## Actual Behavior
[What actually happens]

## Environment
- OS:
- Browser:
- Version:

## Attachments
[Screenshots, logs, etc.]

Scripts

Generate test plan:

bash
python3 scripts/generate_test_plan.py --name <feature> --output docs/test-plan.md

Analyze test coverage:

bash
python3 scripts/coverage_analysis.py --name <service-name> --output coverage-analysis.md

References

• references/strategy.md - Testing strategies
• references/gates.md - Quality gate definitions
• references/metrics.md - QA metrics and KPIs