qa-handoff-package

QA Handoff Package

The "ready for QA" that isn't — a story tossed over the wall with no test data, no edge cases, and no idea what changed — is how bugs slip and QA burns a day setting up. This turns the story and its change into a real handoff: scenarios tied to the acceptance criteria, the negative and edge cases developers reliably forget, the exact data/environment to reproduce, and a clear line around what's not in scope, so testing is focused, not archaeology.

What This Skill Produces

• Test scenarios mapped to acceptance criteria — every AC has at least one way to verify it
• Edge & negative cases — empty/boundary/invalid inputs, permissions, concurrency, the forgotten paths
• Data & environment setup — the exact accounts, feature flags, seed data, and env needed to reproduce
• Risk areas to probe — where this change is most likely to have broken something (incl. nearby regressions)
• Out of scope — what QA should not spend time on for this change

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The story & acceptance criteria — what it's meant to do
• The change — what was built (a summary or the MR/PR diff), so scenarios match reality
• Environments & data — where QA tests, and what setup/flags/accounts are needed
• Known risk/complexity — anything the dev is worried about, or areas the change touches indirectly

Framework: A Handoff QA Can Run

1. Cover every AC. Each acceptance criterion gets a concrete scenario — no AC left unverified.
2. The happy path is the easy 30%. The value is the edge and negative cases: empty, max, invalid, unauthorised, offline, concurrent, mid-migration.
3. Reproducibility is setup. Name the exact data, accounts, roles, and flags — "test it" without setup wastes QA's morning.
4. Point at the risk. Where the diff touches shared code or a fragile area, call it out — including regressions in neighbouring features.
5. Bound it. State what's out of scope so QA doesn't test the whole app for a small change.
6. Ground in the actual change. Scenarios match what was built, not what the story wished for.

Output Format

QA Handoff — [story] · build: [MR/PR ref]

Scenarios (by acceptance criterion)

| AC | Scenario | Expected |

|---|---|---|

Edge & negative cases

• [empty / boundary / invalid / permission / concurrency / offline …]

Setup to reproduce

• Environment: … · Accounts/roles: … · Feature flags: … · Seed data: …

Risk areas / possible regressions

• [where this change might have broken something nearby].

Out of scope

• [what not to test for this change].

Quality Checks

• [ ] Every acceptance criterion has at least one scenario
• [ ] Edge and negative cases are included, not just the happy path
• [ ] Exact data/environment/flag setup is specified for reproducibility
• [ ] Risk areas and possible regressions are called out
• [ ] An explicit out-of-scope list bounds the testing
• [ ] Scenarios reflect what was actually built, not just the story text

Anti-Patterns

• Happy-path only — the bugs live in the edges.
• "Just test the story" with no data/environment setup — a lost QA morning.
• No scope boundary — QA re-tests the whole app for a one-line change.
• Ignoring regressions in features the change touches indirectly.
• Scenarios from the story, not the build — testing what was wished, not what shipped.

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Prep a QA handoff for this story and its MR."
• "What should QA test here, including edge cases and setup?"
• "Write test scenarios mapped to these acceptance criteria."
• "Make this ready for QA — what's in and out of scope?"