QA & Ship Phase Skill

Phase Overview

Purpose: Validate implementation meets requirements, ensure production readiness, ship with confidence.

Entry: Development complete, tests passing, code reviewed Exit: Acceptance criteria verified, no blockers, deployed, stakeholders informed

Deliverables

1. Test Results - All acceptance criteria covered
2. Release Certification - Checklist, stakeholder approvals
3. Release Notes - User-facing changelog
4. Deployment - Verified, monitoring active

QA Testing Checklist

Functional

• All user stories verified
• All acceptance criteria tested
• Edge cases covered
• Error handling tested
• Cross-browser/device (if applicable)

Non-Functional

• Performance meets requirements
• Security scan passed
• Accessibility checked
• Load testing (if applicable)

Integration

• All integrations verified
• API contracts honored
• Data flows end-to-end

Test Code Quality (REQUIRED)

• Tests organized in correct directories (unit/integration/e2e)
• No hardcoded credentials in test code
• No secrets in README or documentation
• Tests run successfully in random order (--randomize)
• ALL existing tests still pass (no regressions)
• Assertions check specific values (not just existence)
• Tests verified to fail when code is broken

Test Verification Steps

Before marking QA complete, MUST verify:

1. Run All Tests

npm test
# All tests must pass
# No skipped tests without documented reason

2. Run in Random Order

jest --randomize
# OR
vitest --sequence.shuffle
# All tests must pass

3. Check for Credentials

# Search for hardcoded secrets
grep -rn "password.*=.*['\"]" tests/
grep -rn "sk_live\|pk_live\|AKIA" tests/
# Should return no matches

4. Verify Assertions (Mutation Test)

1. Comment out a key line of code being tested
2. Run the related test
3. Test MUST fail
4. Restore code and verify test passes

5. Regression Check

• Compare test count before vs after changes
• Same or more tests should pass

Release Process

Pre-Release

1. Complete QA checklist
2. Stakeholder sign-off
3. Prepare release notes
4. Verify rollback procedure
5. Schedule deployment

Deployment

1. Deploy to staging
2. Run smoke tests
3. Deploy to production
4. Verify production smoke
5. Enable monitoring

Post-Release

1. Monitor errors & performance
2. Gather user feedback
3. Address critical issues
4. Document lessons learned
5. Close project artifacts

Phase Gate Checklist

Test Quality Gates (MUST PASS)

• All tests pass (npm test returns 0 failures)
• Tests pass in random order (--randomize flag)
• No hardcoded credentials in test code
• ALL existing tests still pass (no regressions)
• Tests verified to catch bugs (mutation test)

Acceptance & Quality

• All acceptance criteria verified
• No blocking bugs
• Performance validated
• Security review completed

Release Readiness

• Rollback plan documented
• Monitoring configured
• Release notes prepared
• Stakeholder approval
• Deployment instructions verified

Release Notes Template

# Release Notes - [Feature]
**Date**: YYYY-MM-DD
**Version**: X.Y.Z

## What's New
- [Feature]: [Description]

## Improvements
- [Improvement]

## Bug Fixes
- [Fix]: [What was fixed]

## Known Issues
- [Issue]: [Workaround]

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall	Fix
Rushing to ship	Respect checklist
Testing in production	Use staging
Missing rollback	Always have way back
No monitoring	Set up first
Poor communication	Keep everyone informed

Role Guidance

Role	Focus
PM	Acceptance testing, UX, approve release
Dev	Fix bugs, support deploy, monitor
QA	Execute test plan, verify fixes, sign-off
Tech Lead	Operational readiness, approve deploy