QA Test Strategy

Core Workflow

1. Identify the product surface, user risks, technical risks, release stage, platforms, integrations, and failure cost.
2. Define test goals by risk, not by a generic test pyramid alone.
3. Choose test types: unit, integration, contract, end-to-end, visual, accessibility, performance, security, compatibility, exploratory, playtest/usability, smoke, or regression.
4. Define acceptance criteria and release gates before implementation is considered done.
5. Plan test data, environments, mocks, fixtures, devices, accounts, permissions, and observability.
6. Separate automation candidates from manual/exploratory coverage.
7. Track defects by severity, reproducibility, affected users, release risk, and owner.

Freshness Rule

Verify current framework, platform, browser, device, app-store, engine, or compliance testing requirements before giving version-sensitive QA guidance. Testing principles are durable; certification, browser behavior, and tool APIs change.

Deliverable Shape

For QA work, provide: