sumo-qa-deciding-approach

Determining the right QA strategy involves classifying your change intent, inferring its test-writing shape, and enforcing reachability gates before routing to scaffolding or planning. This prevents wasted effort by selecting the correct approach upfront.

A reachability gate in test planning checks for orphan or deletion conditions before choosing any test-writing approach. It is needed when classifying change shapes to enforce routing discipline and prevent invalid test generation.

Recommending removal of tests occurs when the QA classification triggers a STOP condition, routing to a no-tests-recommended or recommend-removal approach based on the change intent and reachability gate results.

TDD scaffolding applies to specific change shapes determined by the QA router. The router classifies whether your request is single-change, repo-wide, or docs/config, ensuring scaffolding only triggers for appropriate test-writing scenarios.

The best way to route QA workflows is by loading classification and approach catalogues, then returning a routing payload with the correct next action skill. This handles mutation testing and regression strengthening by matching your change intent to the right sub-skill.

STOP conditions trigger when classification yields no-tests-recommended or recommend-removal, returning a routing payload with rationale but no sub-skill handoff. This prevents unnecessary test scaffolding for changes that do not require testing.