1. ANALYZE pipeline phases: commit, build, test, staging, production
2. SELECT optimal skills and agents for each phase
3. CONFIGURE quality gates with measurable thresholds
4. EXECUTE with parallel agent coordination
5. ADAPT strategy based on risk, complexity, and environment

Quick Phase Selection:

• Commit (Shift-Left) → TDD, code review, unit tests
• Build → Coverage analysis, mutation testing, flaky detection
• Integration → API contracts, performance, security
• Staging → Chaos testing, visual regression, accessibility
• Production (Shift-Right) → Synthetic monitoring, RUM, compliance

Critical Success Factors:

• Quality gates block bad deployments
• Agents coordinate through memory namespaces
• Adapt strategy based on risk level

Quick Reference Card

When to Use

• Designing pipeline test strategies
• Implementing quality gates
• Coordinating multiple QE agents
• Shift-left and shift-right testing

Phase-Agent Matrix

Quality Gate Thresholds

Fleet Configuration

• Topology: hierarchical
• Max Agents: 10 per phase
• Coordination: aqe/* memory namespace

Pipeline Phases

Phase 1: Commit (Shift-Left)

Goal: Catch defects early, ensure testability

Agents:

• qe-test-generator - Generate unit tests
• qe-requirements-validator - BDD scenarios, INVEST criteria

Skills: shift-left-testing, tdd-london-chicago, code-review-quality

// Parallel execution
Task('Generate Tests', 'Create unit tests for new methods', 'qe-test-generator');
Task('Validate Requirements', 'Check BDD scenarios', 'qe-requirements-validator');

Gates: Unit coverage > 80%, Static analysis clean, Code review approved

Phase 2: Build

Goal: Validate integration, ensure coverage

Agents:

• qe-test-executor - Run test suites
• qe-coverage-analyzer - Coverage gaps (O(log n))
• qe-flaky-test-hunter - Detect/stabilize flaky tests
• qe-regression-risk-analyzer - Minimal regression suite

Skills: test-automation-strategy, mutation-testing, regression-testing

Task('Execute Tests', 'Run full suite, store in aqe/test-results/*', 'qe-test-executor');
Task('Coverage Analysis', 'Identify gaps', 'qe-coverage-analyzer');
Task('Flaky Detection', 'Analyze test history', 'qe-flaky-test-hunter');

Gates: All tests pass, Coverage > 90% critical paths, No new flaky tests

Phase 3: Integration/Test

Goal: Validate contracts, performance, security

Agents:

• qe-api-contract-validator - Breaking changes detection
• qe-performance-tester - Load test critical paths
• qe-security-scanner - SAST/DAST scans
• qe-test-data-architect - Realistic test data (10k+/sec)

Skills: api-testing-patterns, performance-testing, security-testing

// Parallel testing
Task('API Contracts', 'Validate for breaking changes', 'qe-api-contract-validator');
Task('Performance', 'Load test 1000 users', 'qe-performance-tester');
Task('Security', 'SAST/DAST scan', 'qe-security-scanner');

Gates: No breaking API changes, p95 < 200ms, No critical vulnerabilities

Phase 4: Staging

Goal: Validate production-like environment, resilience

Agents:

• qe-chaos-engineer - Fault injection
• qe-visual-tester - Visual regression
• qe-deployment-readiness - Risk assessment

Skills: chaos-engineering-resilience, accessibility-testing, visual-testing

Task('Chaos Testing', 'Controlled failure injection', 'qe-chaos-engineer');
Task('Visual Testing', 'Visual regression', 'qe-visual-tester');
Task('Deployment Check', 'Risk assessment', 'qe-deployment-readiness');

Gates: Chaos tests pass, No visual regressions, Readiness > 85%

Phase 5: Production (Shift-Right)

Goal: Monitor real usage, validate compliance

Agents:

• qe-production-intelligence - Incident → test scenarios
• qe-quality-analyzer - Quality metrics and trends

Skills: shift-right-testing, compliance-testing

Task('Production Intelligence', 'Convert incidents to tests', 'qe-production-intelligence');
Task('Quality Analysis', 'Production metrics', 'qe-quality-analyzer');

Gates: Synthetic monitors pass, Error rate < 0.1%, Compliance validated

Complete Pipeline Example

// Phase 1: Commit
Task('TDD Generation', 'Generate tests for new features', 'qe-test-generator');
Task('Requirements', 'Validate BDD scenarios', 'qe-requirements-validator');

// Phase 2: Build
Task('Execute Tests', 'Full suite with coverage', 'qe-test-executor');
Task('Coverage', 'Analyze gaps', 'qe-coverage-analyzer');
Task('Flaky Hunt', 'Stabilize flaky tests', 'qe-flaky-test-hunter');

// Phase 3: Integration
Task('API Contracts', 'Check breaking changes', 'qe-api-contract-validator');
Task('Performance', '1000 user load test', 'qe-performance-tester');
Task('Security', 'SAST/DAST scans', 'qe-security-scanner');

// Phase 4: Staging
Task('Chaos', 'Fault injection testing', 'qe-chaos-engineer');
Task('Visual', 'Visual regression', 'qe-visual-tester');
Task('Readiness', 'Deployment assessment', 'qe-deployment-readiness');

// Phase 5: Production
Task('Intelligence', 'Convert incidents', 'qe-production-intelligence');
Task('Quality Gate', 'Final validation', 'qe-quality-gate');

Adaptive Strategy

By Risk Level

By Application Type

Agent Coordination Hints

Memory Namespace

aqe/pipeline/
├── phase-results/*         - Results from each phase
├── quality-gates/*         - Gate validation results
├── orchestration-plan/*    - Selected skills and agents
├── test-plan/generated     - Test plans
├── coverage/gaps           - Coverage analysis
├── security/findings       - Security results
└── performance/results     - Performance data

Fleet Orchestration

Task(
  'Fleet Orchestration',
  'Coordinate 10 agents across phases: commit (2), build (3), test (3), staging (2)',
  'qe-fleet-commander'
);

Blackboard Events

Quality Gate Configuration

{
  "commit": {
    "gates": [
      { "metric": "unit_coverage", "threshold": 80, "blocking": true },
      { "metric": "static_analysis_critical", "max": 0, "blocking": true }
    ]
  },
  "build": {
    "gates": [
      { "metric": "all_tests_passed", "threshold": 100, "blocking": true },
      { "metric": "mutation_score", "threshold": 70, "blocking": false }
    ]
  },
  "integration": {
    "gates": [
      { "metric": "api_breaking_changes", "max": 0, "blocking": true },
      { "metric": "performance_p95_ms", "threshold": 200, "blocking": true },
      { "metric": "security_critical", "max": 0, "blocking": true }
    ]
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Related Skills

• agentic-quality-engineering - Fleet coordination
• shift-left-testing - Early defect detection
• shift-right-testing - Production monitoring
• chaos-engineering-resilience - Resilience testing

Remember

The CI/CD Pipeline QE Orchestrator provides:

• Phase-based strategy with optimal skill/agent selection
• Quality gates that block bad deployments
• Adaptive strategy based on risk and context
• Full fleet coordination through memory namespaces

With Agents: Use qe-fleet-commander for multi-agent orchestration. Coordinate through aqe/* memory namespace. Batch operations for efficiency.