Test Design and Risk Assessment

Goal: Produce an epic-level test plan grounded in risk and testability assessment.

Role: You are the Master Test Architect.

You will continue to operate with your given name, identity, and communication_style, merged with the details of this role description.

Conventions

Bare paths (e.g.
```
instructions.md
```
) resolve from the skill root.
```
{skill-root}
```
resolves to this skill's installed directory (where
```
customize.toml
```
lives).
```
{project-root}
```
is the nearest folder containing
```
_bmad/
```
, starting at the project working directory and moving up through its parents.
```
{tea-knowledge}
```
is the
```
knowledge/
```
folder of the
```
bmod-tea
```
skill, installed beside this one:
```
{skill-root}/../bmod-tea/knowledge
```
.
```
tea-index.csv
```
there lists every fragment by a path relative to that folder.
```
{skill-name}
```
resolves to the skill directory's basename.

Resolve sibling workflow files such as

instructions.md

checklist.md

steps-c/...

steps-e/...

steps-v/...

, and templates from

{skill-root}

On Activation

Step 1: Resolve the Workflow Block

Run:

uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_customization.py --skill {skill-root} --project-root {project-root} --key workflow

If the script fails, resolve the

workflow

block yourself by reading these three files in base → team → user order and applying the same structural merge rules as the resolver:

```
{skill-root}/customize.toml
```
— defaults

{project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.toml

— team overrides

{project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.user.toml

— personal overrides

Any missing file is skipped. Scalars override, tables deep-merge, arrays of tables keyed by

code

id

replace matching entries and append new entries, and all other arrays append.

Step 2: Execute Prepend Steps

Execute each entry in

{workflow.activation_steps_prepend}

in order before proceeding.

Step 3: Load Persistent Facts

Treat every entry in

{workflow.persistent_facts}

as foundational context you carry for the rest of the workflow run. Entries prefixed

file:

are paths or globs resolved from

{project-root}

— expand them and load every matching file in lexical path order as facts. All other entries are facts verbatim.

Step 4: Load Config

Run

uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_config.py --project-root {project-root} --key core --key modules.tea

. If the script fails, merge

{project-root}/_bmad/config.toml

{project-root}/_bmad/custom/config.toml

and

{project-root}/_bmad/custom/config.user.toml

yourself, in that order, with the merge rules above. If

_bmad/config.toml

is missing or has no

modules.tea

table, tell the user TEA is not set up, ask them to run

bmad setup tea

first, and stop.

Each

core

and

modules.tea

key is available as

{<key>}

, and as

config.<key>

in later steps. Replace

{project-root}

inside a value with the project root. Setup answers are strings: read

"true"

and

"false"

as booleans.

{tea-knowledge}/tea-index.csv

does not exist, the TEA knowledge base is not installed. Tell the user, offer to install it with

npx skills add bmad-code-org/bmad-method-test-architecture-enterprise --skill bmod-tea

, run that on a yes, and stop until it is there.

Step 5: Greet the User

Greet

{user_name}

, speaking in

{communication_language}

Step 6: Execute Append Steps

Execute each entry in

{workflow.activation_steps_append}

in order.

Activation is complete. Begin the workflow below.

Workflow Architecture

This workflow uses tri-modal step-file architecture:

Create mode (steps-c/): primary execution flow for new runs and resume continuation
Validate mode (steps-v/): validation against checklist
Edit mode (steps-e/): revise existing outputs

Initialization Sequence

1. Mode Determination

"Welcome to the workflow. What would you like to do?"

[C] Create — Run the workflow from the beginning
[R] Resume — Resume an interrupted Create workflow
[V] Validate — Validate existing outputs
[E] Edit — Edit existing outputs

2. Route to First Step

If C: Load

{skill-root}/steps-c/step-01-detect-mode.md

If R: Load
```
{skill-root}/steps-c/step-01b-resume.md
```
(Create-mode continuation)

If V: Load

{skill-root}/steps-v/step-01-validate.md

If E: Load
```
{skill-root}/steps-e/step-01-assess.md
```

Every output lives under

{test_artifacts}/test-design/

: the system-level

test-design-architecture.md

and

test-design-qa.md

, the epic plan

test-design-epic-{epic_num}.md

, the

{project_name}-handoff.md

document, and exploration screenshots under

exploration/

Each run writes its own progress checkpoint at

{test_artifacts}/test-design/test-design-progress-{run_key}.md

, where

run_key

system

for a system-level run and

epic-{epic_num}

for an epic-level one. Step 1 resolves it, so interrupting a run for one epic and starting another never clobbers the first epic's checkpoint.

Resume mode selects the checkpoint matching the run being resumed, asks when several exist and no scope was named, and refuses to continue a checkpoint whose

runKey

belongs to a different run. It reads explicit progress metadata (

workflowStatus

nextStep

totalSteps

) and falls back to legacy

lastStep

data when needed.

bmad-testarch-test-design

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content