Team Composition

Team Composition

What Is This

The "Team Composition" skill for the Happycapy Skills platform (Skill ID: team-qa) is a specialized orchestration tool designed to manage and coordinate a QA (Quality Assurance) team through a complete feature or sprint testing cycle. This skill enables users to delegate tasks to specific QA subagents, ensuring that each aspect of the QA process is covered systematically and efficiently. The two primary roles involved are the qa-lead and the qa-tester, each with well-defined responsibilities. The skill operates by managing these subagents, instructing them to execute their phases of the QA process, and collecting user approvals at each critical decision point.

Why Use It

Effective team composition is crucial for quality-focused software development. Manual orchestration of QA processes can be error-prone, especially as project complexity grows. By leveraging this skill:

• Consistency and Accountability: The QA cycle is standardized, reducing the risk of missed steps or unclear responsibilities.
• Parallelization: Multiple qa-tester subagents can work simultaneously, speeding up test case creation and bug reporting.
• Transparency: Each phase transition requires explicit user approval, ensuring visibility and oversight.
• Repeatability: QA efforts can be reliably reproduced across sprints or features, leading to predictable outcomes.
• Traceability: All team actions and decisions are captured in conversation, supporting auditability and knowledge sharing.

How to Use It

When you invoke this skill, the orchestration process begins for either a sprint or a specific feature, as indicated by your argument (e.g., [sprint: Q2-release] or [feature: payment-system]). The skill manages the following phases according to your input:

1. Test Plan Generation:
   The qa-lead subagent analyzes the sprint or feature scope, creates a QA strategy, and generates a test plan. The subagent also classifies user stories and identifies key risk areas.

2. Test Case Writing:
   The qa-tester subagent receives the test plan and writes detailed test cases. If multiple stories are present, several qa-tester tasks may be launched in parallel.

3. Smoke Check Gate:
   The qa-lead reviews the test cases to ensure coverage and feasibility. Any gaps or issues are flagged for revision.

4. Manual QA Execution:
   The qa-tester performs manual testing, following the test cases and documenting results as well as any bugs found.

5. Sign-off Report:
   The qa-lead consolidates the results, prepares a sign-off report, and makes a recommendation on whether the sprint or feature can be released.

At each phase transition, the skill uses the AskUserQuestion tool to present you with the subagent's proposals. These proposals are summarized with concise labels for easy selection. You must approve each step before the process advances. All subagents are managed using the Task tool, with full context provided in their prompts, including file paths and scope constraints.

Example: Invoking the Skill

team-qa:
  argument: "[feature: user-profile]"

Example: Spawning a Subagent

Task.spawn(
    subagent_type="qa-tester",
    context={
        "story_file_paths": ["features/user-profile/story.md"],
        "qa_plan_path": "qa-plans/user-profile-plan.md",
        "scope_constraints": ["manual only", "high-priority bugs"]
    }
)

When to Use It

The "Team Composition" skill is ideal in the following scenarios:

• Sprint QA: When you need to coordinate testing across multiple stories or features within a sprint.
• Feature QA: When a single, significant feature is being prepared for release and requires full QA coverage.
• Process Standardization: When you want to enforce a repeatable QA process with explicit sign-off at each phase.
• Parallel QA Activities: When there are multiple stories that can be tested independently, allowing for concurrent test case writing and execution.

Do not use this skill for ad hoc or exploratory testing, where formal test plans and sign-offs are not required.

Important Notes

• User Approval Is Mandatory: At each phase, the process halts until you review and approve the subagent's output. This ensures that you retain control over the QA workflow.
• Strict Role Separation: The roles of qa-lead and qa-tester are clearly defined and should not overlap. Use the Task tool to delegate appropriately.
• Parallelization: Launch qa-tester subagents in parallel for independent stories to maximize efficiency.
• Context Is Critical: Always provide complete context (file paths, plans, constraints) when spawning subagents to avoid miscommunication or incomplete coverage.
• No Em-dashes or Non-English Text: Follow documentation conventions strictly.

The "Team Composition" skill is a powerful asset for managing structured QA cycles, ensuring that every phase is covered with professional rigor and that all team activities are fully visible and auditable. Use it to orchestrate your QA team for consistent, high-quality releases.