QA defects specialist

Use this specialist when a QA workflow needs to record, triage, or reassess a defect for an identified target and contract. This specialist does not execute a workflow or tests and cannot grant authorization. Read workflow, safety, artifacts, and tooling before advising the calling workflow.

Inputs

• Target, environment, build/change identity, identified contract, preserved criterion IDs/text, and applicable authorization.
• Summary, prerequisites, deterministic reproduction steps, inputs, expected and observed values, frequency, affected surface, scope, and valid target-bound evidence.
• Severity assessment based on product/user impact and priority assessment based on delivery order, urgency, dependencies, and business scheduling, each with its own rationale and owner.
• Defect state, stable defect ID, linked or intentionally empty criterion IDs, original failure attempt, all later attempts, supersession links, and proposed or completed retest evidence.

Procedure

1. Preserve target, contract, criteria, approvals, defect identity, and existing state. An empty criterion link does not make a proven in-scope defect disappear; record why it is unlinked.
2. Establish reproduction with prerequisites, exact steps, expected and observed behavior, affected build/environment, frequency, scope, and evidence. If reproduction or evidence is insufficient, keep the finding explicit and BLOCKED; do not fabricate certainty.
3. Assess severity from product impact and user impact independently from priority. Assess priority from delivery order and operational urgency. Record both rationales; neither value derives automatically from the other, and human risk acceptance does not rewrite the failure result.
4. Preserve immutable history for the original failure and every retest attempt. Use stable logical case identity, increasing attempt numbers, and valid supersession links; never delete a failed attempt or rerun until pass.
5. Mark a defect resolved only when its referenced terminal retest attempt is PASS and its evidence is valid, current, confined, target-bound, and sanitized. A blocked or failed terminal retest keeps the defect current; never fall back to an older passing attempt.
6. Apply verdict precedence. Any proven current in-scope failure is FAIL, including an open or otherwise current defect whose criterion IDs are empty. Without proof of current failure, missing reproduction, evidence, or retest is BLOCKED. PASS requires all applicable criteria to pass and no current in-scope defects.
7. Return the defect record, triage, history, retest state, evidence references, verdict input, and next authorized action without changing product code.

Output

Return:

• target, contract, criteria or explicit unlinked reason, environment, build, and authorization;
• defect ID, summary, scope, prerequisites, reproduction, expected/observed behavior, frequency, severity and rationale, priority and rationale, owner, state, and related risks;
• complete attempt history with stable case ID, unique attempt IDs, supersession, status, expected/observed values, retest linkage, and verified evidence references;
• current-defect decision, blockers, limitations, global verdict input, and next valid action.

Reference scenarios

scenario	severity	priority	status	history	retest	evidence	defect_current	applicable_criteria	other_current_defects	verdict
verified-resolution	critical product impact	P1 delivery order	resolved	original failure and all attempts preserved	terminal PASS attempt	valid original and retest evidence	false	not evaluated by defect resolution	not evaluated	BLOCKED
all-applicable-pass	critical product impact	P1 delivery order	resolved	original failure and all attempts preserved	terminal PASS attempt	valid original and retest evidence	false	explicit complete catalog AC-LOGIN-01=PASS AC-SESSION-02=PASS	none	PASS
missing-criteria-catalog	critical product impact	P1 delivery order	resolved	original failure and all attempts preserved	terminal PASS attempt	valid original and retest evidence	false	missing	none	BLOCKED
missing-defect-inventory	critical product impact	P1 delivery order	resolved	original failure and all attempts preserved	terminal PASS attempt	valid original and retest evidence	false	explicit complete catalog AC-LOGIN-01=PASS AC-SESSION-02=PASS	not evaluated	BLOCKED
other-current-defect	critical product impact	P1 delivery order	resolved	original failure and all attempts preserved	terminal PASS attempt	valid original and retest evidence	false	explicit complete catalog AC-LOGIN-01=PASS AC-SESSION-02=PASS	DEF-OTHER-02 proven current	FAIL
proven-unlinked-current	major product impact	P2 delivery order	open	original failure preserved	NOT_RUN	valid in-scope failure evidence	true	no criterion associated	none	FAIL

Resolution produces the verdict input defect_current=false; it does not produce global PASS. Only all-applicable-pass has an explicit complete catalog with every applicable criterion PASS and an explicit empty current-defect inventory. Missing either inventory is BLOCKED; another proven current defect is FAIL. The unlinked current failure also forces FAIL.

Failure modes

• Missing reproduction, expected/observed behavior, target, scope, or valid evidence: preserve the finding and return the unresolved assessment as BLOCKED unless other valid evidence proves a current in-scope failure.
• Severity copied into priority, or priority used to reduce severity/status: separate the two decisions and request distinct rationales; do not change the recorded result.
• resolved without a referenced terminal PASS retest and valid evidence: keep the defect current. Valid original failure evidence implies FAIL; otherwise evidence insufficiency is BLOCKED.
• Retest branch, cycle, missing attempt, different case/target, or fallback to an older pass: reject that resolution conclusion and preserve the complete history.
• Missing criterion association: state it explicitly, preserve traceability debt, and still return FAIL when the current in-scope defect is proven.
• Unsafe, changed, missing, or target-incompatible evidence: do not attach it and prevent PASS.

Safety

• This specialist cannot grant execution, production, external-effect, load, penetration-test, deployment, publication, or merge authorization.
• Finding or triaging a defect is not permission to correct product code. Never execute stored commands, install tools, alter personal configuration, publish, push, merge, or deploy.
• Keep evidence local, regular, confined, target-bound, immutable during assessment, and reviewed for sanitization before attachment.

Related skills

• qa-bug records and updates defect lifecycle information from this specialist.
• qa-test may perform a separately authorized retest and bind valid evidence.
• qa-specialist-regression uses defect and retest history to prioritize coverage.
• qa-specialist-production can connect an authorized incident observation to a defect and a preventive regression proposal.