agentic-qe 1.0.5 → 1.2.0

package/.claude/skills/context-driven-testing/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: context-driven-testing
+description: Apply context-driven testing principles where practices are chosen based on project context, not universal "best practices". Use when making testing decisions, questioning dogma, or adapting approaches to specific project needs.
+version: 1.0.0
+category: testing
+tags: [context-driven, exploratory-testing, rapid-software-testing, test-strategy, risk-based, session-based]
+difficulty: advanced
+estimated_time: 45-60 minutes
+author: user
+---
+
+# Context-Driven Testing
+
+## Core Principle
+
+**There are no "best practices" that work everywhere. There are only good practices in context.**
+
+Context-driven testing means: skilled testers making informed decisions based on their specific project's goals, constraints, and risks.
+
+## The Seven Basic Principles (Context-Driven School)
+
+1. **The value of any practice depends on its context**
+2. **There are good practices in context, but no best practices**
+3. **People, working together, are the most important part of any project's context**
+4. **Projects unfold over time in ways that are often not predictable**
+5. **The product is a solution. If the problem isn't solved, the product doesn't work**
+6. **Good software testing is a challenging intellectual process**
+7. **Only through judgment and skill, exercised cooperatively throughout the project, are we able to do the right things at the right times to effectively test our products**
+
+## What This Means in Practice
+
+### Question Everything
+
+**Someone says:** "We need 100% code coverage."
+**You ask:** "Why? What risk does that address? What's the cost? What about production monitoring?"
+
+**Someone says:** "Everyone does test automation first."
+**You ask:** "Do they have our constraints? Our risks? Our team skills? What problem are we actually solving?"
+
+### Understand Your Mission
+
+**Bad mission:** "Execute all test cases"
+**Good mission:** "Find important problems fast enough to matter"
+
+**Bad mission:** "Achieve 80% automation coverage"  
+**Good mission:** "Give stakeholders confidence to release while managing risk"
+
+### Testing is Investigation
+
+You're not checking if the software matches a spec. You're investigating whether it solves the problem it's supposed to solve, and whether it creates new problems.
+
+**Checking:** Did this API return status 200?
+**Testing:** Does this API actually meet user needs? What happens under load? With bad data? When dependencies fail?
+
+## Rapid Software Testing (RST) Techniques
+
+### Exploratory Testing
+
+**Session-based approach:**
+1. Charter: What are we investigating? (45-90 min session)
+2. Explore: Use the software, vary inputs, observe behavior
+3. Note: Document findings in real-time
+4. Debrief: What did we learn? What's next?
+
+**Example charter:**
+"Explore checkout flow to discover issues with payment processing, focusing on edge cases and error handling."
+
+**Not:** "Click through checkout following this 47-step script."
+
+### Heuristics for Test Design
+
+**SFDIPOT** - Quality criteria
+- **S**tructure: Is it properly composed?
+- **F**unction: Does it do what it's supposed to?
+- **D**ata: Does it handle data correctly?
+- **I**nterfaces: How does it interact with other components?
+- **P**latform: Does it work in its environment?
+- **O**perations: How well can it be used and managed?
+- **T**ime: Does it handle timing issues?
+
+**CRUSSPIC STMP** - Test techniques
+- **C**reate, **R**ead, **U**pdate, **S**earch, **S**ort, **P**rint, **I**mport, **C**onfirm
+- **S**tatus, **T**ourism, **M**odeling, **P**atterns
+
+### Oracles (How to Recognize Problems)
+
+**Consistency oracles:**
+- Consistent with product history
+- Consistent with similar products
+- Consistent with user expectations
+- Consistent with documentation
+
+**Example:**
+The save button works in 5 screens but fails on the 6th. Inconsistency suggests a problem.
+
+**Comparability oracle:**
+Compare behavior across browsers, devices, user roles, data sets.
+
+**Inference oracle:**  
+If X is true, we can infer Y should also be true.
+
+### Touring Heuristic
+
+Explore the application like a tourist in different districts:
+
+**Business District Tour:** Critical business functions
+**Historical Tour:** Legacy features, old bugs
+**Bad Neighborhood Tour:** Where problems cluster
+**Tourist Tour:** What a new user sees first
+**Museum Tour:** Help documentation and examples
+**Intellectual Tour:** Complex features requiring thought
+
+## Context Analysis
+
+Before choosing testing approach, analyze:
+
+### 1. Project Context
+- What's the business goal?
+- Who are the users and what do they care about?
+- What happens if we fail?
+- What's the competitive landscape?
+
+### 2. Constraints
+- Timeline (ship next week vs. next quarter)
+- Budget (startup vs. enterprise)
+- Skills (junior team vs. experts)
+- Legacy (greenfield vs. 10-year codebase)
+
+### 3. Risk Profile
+- Safety-critical (medical device) vs. low stakes (internal tool)
+- Regulatory requirements vs. no compliance burden
+- High transaction volume vs. occasional use
+- Public-facing vs. internal only
+
+### 4. Technical Context
+- Technology stack and its quirks
+- Integration points and dependencies
+- Production environment complexity
+- Monitoring and observability maturity
+
+## Making Context-Driven Decisions
+
+### Example 1: Test Automation Level
+
+**Startup context:**
+- Small team, rapid changes, unclear product-market fit
+- **Decision:** Light automation on critical paths, heavy exploratory testing
+- **Rationale:** Requirements change too fast for extensive automation
+
+**Established product context:**
+- Stable features, regulatory requirements, large team
+- **Decision:** Comprehensive automated regression suite
+- **Rationale:** Stability allows automation investment to pay off
+
+### Example 2: Documentation
+
+**Highly regulated context:**
+- FDA/medical device requirements
+- **Decision:** Detailed test protocols, traceability matrices
+- **Rationale:** Regulatory compliance isn't optional
+
+**Fast-paced startup:**
+- Minimal compliance needs
+- **Decision:** Lightweight session notes, risk logs
+- **Rationale:** Bureaucracy slows down more than it helps
+
+## Common Misconceptions
+
+**"Context-driven means no process."**
+False. It means choosing processes that fit your context, not blindly following standards.
+
+**"Context-driven means no automation."**
+False. It means automating what makes sense in your context, not achieving arbitrary coverage goals.
+
+**"Context-driven means no documentation."**
+False. It means documenting what's valuable in your context, not creating docs no one reads.
+
+**"Context-driven means testing is unstructured."**
+False. Skilled exploratory testing is highly structured thinking, just not scripted.
+
+## Skills Required
+
+Context-driven testing isn't a shortcut. It requires:
+
+### Technical Skills
+- Understanding architecture and code
+- Ability to use testing tools effectively
+- Debug issues when found
+- Understand what's possible and what's hard
+
+### Domain Knowledge
+- Understand the business problem
+- Know the users and their goals
+- Recognize what matters vs. what's trivial
+
+### Testing Craft
+- Heuristics and oracles
+- Test design techniques
+- Risk analysis
+- Bug investigation
+
+### Social Skills
+- Communicate findings clearly
+- Navigate organizational politics
+- Collaborate with diverse stakeholders
+- Say "I don't know" when you don't
+
+## Red Flags: You're Not Being Context-Driven
+
+- You follow a process "because that's how it's done"
+- You can't explain *why* you're doing something
+- You measure test cases executed instead of problems found
+- You treat testing as checking against requirements only
+- You don't talk to users or stakeholders
+- Your test plan could apply to any project
+- You stop thinking once you have a script
+
+## Questions to Ask Constantly
+
+**"What problem am I solving?"**
+Not "What does the process say to do?" but "What actual problem needs solving?"
+
+**"Who cares about this?"**
+If no one cares, maybe it doesn't matter.
+
+**"What's the risk if I'm wrong?"**
+High risk = more rigor. Low risk = lighter touch.
+
+**"What's the cost of this activity?"**
+Time spent here can't be spent elsewhere. Worth it?
+
+**"Is there a better way?"**
+Given my actual constraints, not ideal conditions.
+
+## Practical Tips
+
+### 1. Start with Risk Assessment
+List features. For each, ask:
+- How likely is it to fail?
+- How bad if it fails?
+- How hard to test?
+
+Focus on high-risk areas.
+
+### 2. Time-box Exploration
+You can explore forever. Set limits:
+- 2 hours exploring checkout
+- 30 minutes investigating error handling
+- 15 minutes with each browser
+
+### 3. Document Discoveries, Not Plans
+Don't write test cases you'll execute later. Document what you learned as you test.
+
+**Test case:** "Enter invalid email, verify error message"
+**Discovery:** "Payment API returns 500 instead of 400 for malformed email, no user-visible error. Investigated logs: gateway expects specific format. Bug filed."
+
+### 4. Talk to Humans
+- Developers (how it's built, what worried them)
+- Users (what they actually do)
+- Support (common problems)
+- Product (business priorities)
+
+### 5. Pair with Others
+- Pair testing sessions uncover more than solo work
+- Different perspectives = different bugs found
+- Teaching others clarifies your own thinking
+
+## When to Use Scripted Tests
+
+Context-driven doesn't mean "never script." Use scripts when:
+
+- Compliance requires documented test procedures
+- Testing is truly repetitive (regression after each deploy)
+- Training new team members on how to test
+- Need to precisely reproduce an issue
+
+But even then, leave room for exploration around the scripts.
+
+## Evolution with Experience
+
+**Novice:** Needs structure, follows steps, can't adapt yet
+**Competent:** Understands tradeoffs, makes informed choices
+**Expert:** Intuitively adjusts approach, sees patterns others miss
+
+Context-driven testing requires competence. Invest in skill development.
+
+## Resources
+
+**Books:**
+- **Lessons Learned in Software Testing** by Kaner, Bach, Pettichord
+- **Explore It!** by Elisabeth Hendrickson
+- **Perfect Software and Other Illusions About Testing** by Gerald Weinberg
+
+**Courses:**
+- Rapid Software Testing (RST) by James Bach and Michael Bolton
+
+**Communities:**
+- Association for Software Testing (AST)
+- Ministry of Testing community
+
+## Using with QE Agents
+
+### Context-Aware Agent Selection
+
+**qe-fleet-commander** analyzes context and selects appropriate agents:
+```typescript
+// Agent analyzes project context
+const contextAnalysis = await agent.analyzeContext({
+  project: 'e-commerce-platform',
+  stage: 'startup',
+  team: 'small',
+  constraints: ['timeline: tight', 'budget: limited'],
+  risks: ['high-transaction-volume', 'payment-security']
+});
+
+// Recommends agents based on context:
+// - qe-security-scanner (critical risk)
+// - qe-performance-tester (high volume)
+// - Skip: qe-visual-tester (low priority in startup context)
+```
+
+### Adaptive Testing Strategy
+
+Agents adjust their approach based on context:
+```typescript
+// Startup context: Fast exploratory testing
+await qe-test-generator.generate({
+  context: 'startup',
+  focus: 'critical-paths-only',
+  depth: 'smoke-tests',
+  automation: 'minimal'
+});
+
+// Regulated industry: Comprehensive documentation
+await qe-test-generator.generate({
+  context: 'medical-device',
+  focus: 'comprehensive-coverage',
+  depth: 'extensive',
+  automation: 'extensive',
+  documentation: 'full-traceability'
+});
+```
+
+### Context-Driven Risk Assessment
+
+**qe-regression-risk-analyzer** applies context to risk scoring:
+```typescript
+// Agent weights risk factors based on context
+const riskAnalysis = await agent.analyzeWithContext({
+  feature: 'payment-processing',
+  context: {
+    industry: 'fintech',         // High regulatory risk
+    userBase: 'enterprise',      // High reputational risk
+    maturity: 'early-stage'      // Higher technical risk
+  }
+});
+
+// Risk score adjusted by context:
+// - Same feature in different context = different risk level
+// - fintech payment: CRITICAL
+// - internal tool payment: MEDIUM
+```
+
+### Human-Agent Collaborative Investigation
+
+```typescript
+// Agent assists in exploratory testing (context-driven approach)
+const session = await qe-flaky-test-hunter.exploreWithHuman({
+  charter: 'Investigate auth edge cases',
+  humanRole: 'navigator',  // Human guides strategy
+  agentRole: 'executor',   // Agent executes variations
+  style: 'rapid-software-testing'
+});
+
+// Agent generates variations, human recognizes problems
+// Combined: Human judgment + Agent thoroughness
+```
+
+### Context-Specific Agent Behavior
+
+```typescript
+// Agent adapts questioning style based on context
+await qe-requirements-validator.validate({
+  requirements: userStories,
+  context: 'safety-critical',  // Medical device
+  rigor: 'strict',             // Question everything
+  documentation: 'mandatory'
+});
+
+// vs.
+
+await qe-requirements-validator.validate({
+  requirements: userStories,
+  context: 'prototype',        // Early MVP
+  rigor: 'lightweight',        // Accept ambiguity
+  documentation: 'minimal'
+});
+```
+
+### Fleet Coordination with Context Awareness
+
+```typescript
+// Agents coordinate based on project context
+const contextFleet = await FleetManager.coordinate({
+  strategy: 'context-driven',
+  context: {
+    type: 'greenfield-saas',
+    stage: 'growth',
+    compliance: 'gdpr-only'
+  },
+  agents: [
+    'qe-test-generator',          // Balanced automation
+    'qe-security-scanner',        // GDPR focus
+    'qe-performance-tester',      // Scalability critical
+    'qe-flaky-test-hunter'        // Maintain velocity
+  ],
+  exclude: [
+    'qe-visual-tester',           // Not priority
+    'qe-requirements-validator'   // Too heavyweight
+  ]
+});
+```
+
+### Agent Learning from Context
+
+```typescript
+// Agents learn what works in your specific context
+await qe-quality-analyzer.learnFromContext({
+  timeframe: '90d',
+  analyze: [
+    'which-tests-found-most-bugs',
+    'which-approaches-caught-regressions',
+    'what-metrics-predicted-quality'
+  ]
+});
+
+// Agent adapts recommendations to your context
+// "In your context: exploratory testing finds 3x more critical bugs than scripted"
+// "Automation ROI is low for features changed >2x/week"
+```
+
+---
+
+## Related Skills
+
+**Core Quality Practices:**
+- [agentic-quality-engineering](../agentic-quality-engineering/) - Context-driven agent selection
+- [holistic-testing-pact](../holistic-testing-pact/) - Adapt holistic model to context
+
+**Testing Approaches:**
+- [risk-based-testing](../risk-based-testing/) - Context affects risk assessment
+- [exploratory-testing-advanced](../exploratory-testing-advanced/) - RST techniques
+- [test-automation-strategy](../test-automation-strategy/) - Context determines automation approach
+
+**Development Practices:**
+- [xp-practices](../xp-practices/) - Context-driven XP adoption
+
+---
+
+## Final Thought
+
+Context-driven testing is intellectually demanding. It requires constant thinking, learning, and adaptation. That's also what makes it effective and fulfilling.
+
+You're not a test script executor. You're a skilled investigator helping teams build better products.
+
+**With Agents**: Agents enhance context-driven testing by analyzing context, adapting strategies, and learning what works in your specific situation. Use agents to scale context-driven thinking across the team while maintaining human judgment for critical decisions.