Role-Based Test Management

This document serves as a baseline, end-to-end workflow guide for demonstrating Qualityfolio to new users. It explains who does what, when, and how—from project initiation to test closure and sign-off—using clearly defined roles and ordered activities.

The following points capture the concepts that define how Qualityfolio establishes and maintains Operational Truth:

The workflow aligns with Qualityfolio (TMaC) principles and the Spry hierarchy: Project → Strategy → Plan → Suite → Case → Evidence
Requirements can be added by overriding Strategy in a Complex model
Issues can be added by overriding Evidence
Test cycles are included in Evidence block

1. Roles in Qualityfolio

1.1 Test Engineer (TE)

Primary focus: Test case creation & updates, test execution, evidence generation, requirement validation, and status updates

1.2 Test Lead (TL)

Primary focus: Test design, requirement curation, planning, orchestration, reviews, and coordination

1.3 Test Manager (TM)

Primary focus: Governance, approvals, risk management, scope control, and final sign-off

2. High-Level Workflow Overview

Project Initiation
Requirement Definition & Baseline
Test Strategy & Planning
Test Design & Suite Allocation
Approval & Governance
Test Cycle Definition
Test Execution & Evidence Capture
Continuous Review & Iteration
Test Closure & Sign-Off

Each phase below is ordered chronologically and mapped to roles.

Approves testing engagement
Confirms scope, timelines, and compliance needs
Authorizes Qualityfolio project creation

QF Activity: No activity. Manual activities outside QF and email communication to the stakeholders.

Test Lead

Creates Project in Qualityfolio
Defines high-level testing objectives
Identifies test types (Smoke, Regression, Audit, etc.)

QF Activity:

Cone the assurance-prime git repository at https://github.com/programmablemd/assurance-prime to a local folder for getting the folder structure, and also the latest qualityfolio.md and qualityfolio etl script (qualityfolio-json-etl.sql)
Open the assurance-prime folder in Visual Studio Code
Move to the folder qualityfolio by following ./support/assurance/qualityfolio
You may rename the folder qualityfolio to the Project name
Inside the folder test-artifacts create a test artifact file, by defining the heading level hierarchy in doc-classify which is to be used in this project, and define the high-level testing objectives like project, strategy, requirement and plan
Push the project into organization's git repository for QA activities of this project
Give write permission to the testing team members (test engineers)

Test Engineer

Gets access to the project workspace
Reviews initial project context and documentation

QF Activity:

Clone the organization's git repo for QA activities of this project
Review initial project context and documentation

Requirements are the control plane of the project—they determine what gets tested, executed, traced, and signed off.

Tasks by Role

Test Manager

Confirms authoritative requirement sources:
- BRD / PRD
- User stories
- Regulatory or compliance controls
Defines requirement governance and change control
Approves the requirement baseline

QF Activity: No activity. Manual activities outside QF and email communication to the stakeholders.

Test Lead

Creates Requirements in test artifact file in Qualityfolio
Normalizes requirements into:
- Atomic
- Unambiguous
- Testable units
Assigns requirement identifiers
Organizes requirements by:
- Feature
- Risk
- Compliance domain
Establishes traceability expectations (Requirement ↔ Test Case ↔ Evidence)

QF Activity:

Lists out one or more requirements in a test artifact file
Defines requirement overview and acceptance criteria along with a yaml HFM role override block

Test Engineer

Reviews requirements for:
- Ambiguity
- Missing acceptance criteria
- Non-testable statements
Raises clarifications and gaps
Suggests negative and edge scenarios

QF Activity:

Reviews requirements in the test artifact file and communicates gaps, clarifications, and suggestions to Test Lead to update

Creates Test Strategy
Defines:
- Test approach
- Environments
- Entry/exit criteria
- Risk-based prioritization (derived from requirements)
Creates Test Plan, divided into:
- Scope & Objectives (requirement-driven)
- Test Types
- Tools & Automation
- Evidence & Reporting

QF Activity:

Defines test strategy and test plans in the test artifact file
Updates requirements section for override

Test Manager

Reviews strategy and test plan
Ensures compliance, feasibility, and audit readiness
Approves the Test Plan

QF Activity:

Reviews heading hierarchy, strategy (if available), test plan and requirements
Adds Approved-date and Approved-by values in the yaml block of test plan

Test Engineer

Reviews approved strategy and plan
Seeks clarification if required

QF Activity:

Reviews strategy, plan and requirements and communicates gaps, clarifications, and suggestions to Test Lead to update

6. Phase 4: Test Design & Suite Allocation

Objective

Design test cases that validate requirements and organize them logically.

QF Activity:

Creates Test suites - Test Lead
Writes and updates test cases - Test Engineer
Reviews test cases for completeness and traceability and gives feedback to Test Engineer - Test Lead
Updates test cases with additional scenarios, if any - Test Engineer
Assigns test cases to Test Engineers (May use Spry VS code extension) for execution - Test Lead
All the activities by users (in all roles) are to be pushed to the project repository - Test Engineer, Test Lead, Test Manager
Spot-checks requirement coverage and risk alignment - Test Manager

Tasks by Role

Test Lead

Creates Test Suites
Ensures every requirement is covered by at least one test case
Reviews test cases for completeness and traceability
Assigns test suites / cases to Test Engineers

Test Engineer

Writes and updates test cases
Ensures each test case includes:
- Description
- Preconditions
- Steps
- Expected results
- Linked requirement IDs
Suggests additional scenarios based on requirement analysis

Test Manager

Spot-checks requirement coverage and risk alignment

Confirms:
- Requirement coverage completeness
- Test design readiness
Prepares test readiness summary

QF Activity:

Pulls the latest from project git repository
Builds Test management dashboard (sqlpage) and HTML web-ui(for test artifacts preview) in the local
Ensures requirement coverage and test design readiness

Test Manager

Approves:
- Requirements baseline
- Test suites and test cases
Provides execution authorization

QF Activity:

Pulls the latest from project git repository
Builds Test management dashboard and HTML web-ui(for test artifacts preview) in the local as explained here
Signals execution authorization to Test Lead

Defines Test Cycles inside the Test Case Evidence section
Examples:
- Cycle 1 – Smoke Validation
- Cycle 2 – Regression Round 1
- Cycle 3 – Compliance Audit
Assigns cycles to Test Engineers
Sets execution timelines

QF Activity:

Defines test cycle version and cycle-date in the yaml block of Evidence
Assigns/ re-assigns test cases to Test Engineers

Test Engineer

Reviews assigned test cases
Confirms readiness for execution

QF Activity:

Reviews assigned test cases
Confirms execution readiness to Test Lead

Executes test cases cycle-wise
Updates evidence with:
- Execution status (Pass / Fail / Blocked)
- Actual results
Attaches execution artifacts:
- Logs
- Screenshots
- SQL outputs
- Generated files
Updates test cases if gaps are found
Generates Web UI and execution reports

QF Activity:

Executes test cases
Updates evidences with screenshots/ automation results
Creates Issues under evidence, by overriding evidence, if any test case execution is failed
Generates Test management dashboard and checks the drill down options through test cases, issues, and cycles. Also checks the filter options in the dashboard

Test Lead

Monitors execution progress
Reviews failures and gaps
Reviews Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) at the end of each cycle

QF Activity:

Pulls the latest from project git repository
Builds Test management dashboard (sqlpage) and HTML web-ui(for test artifacts preview) in the local
Monitors execution progress, reviews failures and Requirement Traceability Matrix

Test Manager

Reviews high-level execution metrics
Reviews RTM and risk exposure per cycle

QF Activity:

Pulls the latest from project git repository
Builds Test management dashboard (sqlpage) and HTML web-ui(for test artifacts preview) in the local
Reviews Requirement Traceability Matrix and risk exposure per cycle by analysing the failures

Reviews failed and blocked cases
Adds or updates test cycles if required
Enhances test coverage for new or changed requirements

QF Activity:

Reviews failed and blocked cases by analysing the test management dash board
Adds new test cycles by adding one more evidence block in each test case, which all have failed or blocked
Adds or updates requirements, suites, and plans if needed

Test Engineer

Re-executes failed or updated cases
Updates evidence for new cycles

QF Activity:

Re-executes failed or updated cases
Updates status of evidence
Adds attachments in the evidence folder with test case id and cycle version

Test Manager

Reviews impact of requirement changes
Approves additional scope or cycles

QF Activity:

Builds Test management dashboard (sqlpage) and HTML web-ui(for test artifacts preview) with the latest files
Approves additional requirements, cycles, plan, if any

Confirms all in-scope requirements are:
- Covered
- Executed
- Accounted for
Reviews final Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM)
Prepares test summary report

QF Activity:

Reviews final Requirement Traceability Matrix for completeness and coverage
Prepares test summary report from the test management dashboard

Test Manager

Reviews final deliverables
Confirms exit criteria are met
Provides formal sign-off

QF Activity:

Reviews final deliverables (ZIP file for the project repository including evidence folder, test-artifacts folder, qualityfolio-json.etl.sql, qualityfolio.md and resource-surveillance.sqlite.db)
Confirms exit criteria are met
Provides formal sign-off by updating the project status to completed

Test Engineer

Supports audits and clarifications if required

QF Activity: No activity. Manual activities outside qualityfolio

12. Deliverables at Closure

Approved Requirements Baseline
Approved Test Strategy & Plan
Executed Test Suites with Evidence
Test Cycle History

How is this guide?

Role-Based Test Management

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