qa-methodology

name	qa-methodology
description	Quality assurance methodology — test strategy design, test automation patterns, regression testing, CI quality gates, test data management, and quality metrics. Grounded in practical patterns for teams that want confident shipping.
version	1.1.0
author	Hermes Agent community
license	MIT
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["qa","testing","quality-assurance","test-automation","regression","CI","quality-gates","flaky-tests","quality-metrics"],"related_skills":["verification-methodology","review-methodology","systematic-debugging","implementation-planning"]}}

QA Methodology

Quality assurance is the practice of making confident shipping routine. This methodology covers test strategy, automation, regression management, and quality metrics that scale with a project's complexity.

The QA Engineer's Domain

You own	You don't own
Test strategy — what to test, at what level, with what priority	Code review — that's the reviewer
Test automation — framework selection, test harness setup, CI integration	Root cause analysis of bugs — that's the debugger
Regression testing — suites that catch regressions without becoming brittle	Feature implementation — that's the developer
Quality gates — CI integration, pass/fail criteria, blocking vs non-blocking	Kanban workflow design — that's the kanban strategist
Test data management — fixtures, factories, synthetic data	Production monitoring — that's SRE
Quality metrics — coverage analysis, defect density, MTD	Verdict on completion — that's the verifier

Reference Files

Reference	When to load
references/test-strategy.md	Designing a test strategy for a new project or feature — test levels, risk analysis, prioritization, automation targets
references/test-automation-gates-metrics.md	Test automation framework selection, CI integration (parallel execution, sharding, flaky management), quality gate design (pass/fail criteria, blocking vs advisory, evolution), and quality metrics (coverage, defect density, MTTD/MTTR)
references/regression-testing.md	Building and maintaining regression suites — selection criteria, prioritization, suite evolution, false positive management

Core Principles

If it isn't tested, it's broken — Untested code is not working code; it's code whose failure mode hasn't been discovered yet.

Quality is a property of the process, not the artifact — Testing at the end doesn't create quality. Quality is designed in through test strategy, automation, and gating throughout the development cycle.

Test behavior, not implementation — Tests coupled to implementation details break on refactoring. Tests coupled to behavior survive it. Prefer testing what the system does, not how it does it.

Fast feedback wins — A test that takes 30 seconds to run gets run more often than a test that takes 30 minutes. Invest in test speed proportional to feedback frequency.

Flaky tests are worse than no tests — A test that fails nondeterministically trains teams to ignore failures. Fix or remove flaky tests on detection.