qa-expert

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

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

Pre-Merge

- 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

- 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

# 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

## 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:

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

Analyze test coverage:

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