Phase 3 - Design

Design is where AI helps you build the test artefacts for each domain. Every design skill reads qa-plan.md first - if a domain is not in scope, the skill will not proceed.

Design produces config files, plans, and YAML scripts that Phase 4 (Execution) runs deterministically. No AI is in the loop during execution.

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Skills in this phase

Skill	Domain	Output
/qa-api	API	qa-reports/api/api-test-plan.json
/qa-ui	UI	qa-reports/ui/ui-test.yaml
/qa-a11y	Accessibility	qa-reports/a11y/ui-test.yaml with scan steps
/qa-perf	Performance	load-tests/dq-nbomber.yaml
/qa-coverage	All	qa-coverage.md gap analysis
/qa-codegen	All	Exported .spec.ts / C# .NET for CI

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API design (/qa-api)

Reads your OpenAPI/Swagger or GraphQL schema via the democratize-quality MCP server and generates a comprehensive test plan covering every endpoint in scope.

Test categories generated:

Category	Examples
Happy path	Valid requests with expected responses
Authentication	Missing token, expired token, wrong scope
Input validation	Required fields missing, wrong types, boundary values
Error responses	400, 401, 403, 404, 409, 500
Schema validation	Response body matches declared schema
Edge cases	Empty arrays, null values, max string lengths

Output: qa-reports/api/api-test-plan.json

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UI design (/qa-ui)

Explores the live application and builds a YAML interaction script for accessibility-cli. The skill navigates page-by-page, resolves real CSS selectors, and writes each step as it is confirmed.

Output: qa-reports/ui/ui-test.yaml - a Playwright-driven interaction script

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Accessibility design (/qa-a11y)

Builds on the UI script by adding WCAG scan steps per page. It reads dq-qa.config.json for jurisdiction and conformance level (A, AA, AAA) and contextually decides which axe-core checks apply.

Output: Scan steps appended to the UI YAML, or a standalone audit YAML if no UI script exists

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Performance design (/qa-perf)

Generates a dq-nbomber.yaml load test configuration from your API schema. It collects load parameters (virtual users, duration, ramp-up) and validates the YAML before handing off to execution.

Output: load-tests/dq-nbomber.yaml

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Coverage check (/qa-coverage)

After all design skills have run, /qa-coverage compares the test designs against qa-plan.md requirements to confirm nothing was missed. It produces a gap table showing which requirements have test coverage and which do not.

Output: qa-coverage.md

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CI export (/qa-codegen)

Optional but recommended before pipeline integration. Exports the YAML-based test scripts into native code formats for deterministic CI runs with no AI dependency.

Domain	Exported format
UI / A11y	Playwright .spec.ts files
Performance	Full C# .NET NBomber project

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Phase gate

Phase 3 is complete when:

• [x] Each in-scope domain has a design artefact in qa-reports/
• [x] /qa-coverage shows no critical gaps
• [x] (Optional) /qa-codegen has exported CI-ready test code

Once designs are complete, proceed to Phase 4 - Execution.