qa-hiring
QA hiring toolkit: 5 skills (qa-jd-author, interview-question-author, hiring-rubric-author, calibration-guide-author, onboarding-plan-author) and 1 agent (interview-debrief-facilitator) covering the full hiring chain for QA / SDET / test-lead / quality-manager roles - job descriptions, ISTQB-aligned question banks, role-specific scoring rubrics, interviewer calibration per Levashina 2014 et al., post-interview debriefs, and 30-60-90 onboarding plans.
Install this plugin
/plugin install qa-hiring@testland-qaPart of role bundle: qa-role-leadership
qa-hiring
QA hiring toolkit: a structured-interview triple - questions, rubric, calibration guide - for QA / SDET / test-lead / quality-manager roles. Implements the canonical Levashina 2014 et al. structured-interview methodology with ISTQB-aligned competency vocabulary.
Components
| Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Skill | qa-jd-author | Build a QA job description for a role + seniority - ISTQB CTFL v4.0 testing-role vs test-management-role responsibilities, must-have / nice-to-have skills split, and recruiter screening signals - the upstream-most artifact of the hiring chain. |
| Skill | interview-question-author | Build a role + seniority-specific question bank - technical, behavioural (STAR-format), scenario-based, system-design - classified by ISTQB competency and Bloom's-taxonomy difficulty. |
| Skill | hiring-rubric-author | Build a competency-anchored 4-level scoring rubric (no-hire / borderline / hire / strong-hire) with concrete behavioural anchors per competency dimension. |
| Skill | calibration-guide-author | Build an interviewer calibration guide - gold-standard model answers per question per score level, common interviewer pitfalls, and a panel-calibration session script. |
| Agent | interview-debrief-facilitator | Facilitates the post-interview calibration loop and produces a rubric-anchored hire/no-hire decision document. |
| Skill | onboarding-plan-author | Build a 30-60-90 day QA-hire onboarding plan by seniority, mapped to the hiring rubric. |
The three skills compose: questions are authored first, then the matching rubric, then the calibration guide. None of the three is sufficient alone - running structured interviews requires all three.
Install
/plugin marketplace add testland/qa
/plugin install qa-hiring@testland-qaComposition with the rest of the marketplace
These cross-references keep hiring rubrics anchored on the same conventions the team already uses for execution.
Skills
calibration-guide-author
Build-an-X workflow that produces an interviewer calibration guide for a QA hiring loop - takes the question bank and rubric (from sibling skills `interview-question-author` and `hiring-rubric-author`) plus 2-5 sample candidate transcripts/responses, and emits gold-standard model answers, common pitfalls, score-anchor examples per question, and a calibration-session script for the panel. Distinct from the question and rubric skills (which produce the questions and the scoring scaffold); this skill produces the **demonstration material** that brings two interviewers' scores into agreement. Use after the rubric exists and before the first real candidate - the calibration guide is what closes the inter-rater-reliability gap that the rubric alone cannot.
hiring-rubric-author
Build-an-X workflow that produces a per-role QA hiring rubric - takes a role description (manual QA / SDET / automation engineer / test lead / quality manager) plus the question bank from `interview-question-author` and emits a competency-anchored scoring rubric with 4-level behavioral anchors (no-hire / borderline / hire / strong-hire) per competency. Distinct from `interview-question-author` (sibling skill that produces the questions) and from `calibration-guide-author` (sibling that produces the gold-standard answer guide). Use after the question bank exists and before the first interview is scheduled - the rubric is what brings interviewer scoring into agreement.
interview-question-author
Build-an-X workflow that produces a QA-role-specific interview question bank - takes a role description (manual QA / SDET / automation engineer / test lead / quality manager) plus competency model and emits a structured question bank covering technical, behavioral (STAR-format), scenario-based, and system-design dimensions, classified by ISTQB-canonical competency areas and Bloom's taxonomy difficulty levels. Distinct from `hiring-rubric-author` (sibling skill that produces the scoring rubric) and `calibration-guide-author` (sibling that produces the gold-standard answer guide). Use as the first artifact a hiring manager produces when opening a QA / test role, before scheduling the first interview.
onboarding-plan-author
Build-an-X workflow that produces a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan for a newly hired QA engineer - takes seniority level (junior / mid / senior / lead) plus the team's hiring rubric and emits phase-gated ramp milestones, competency targets mapped to the rubric axes, mentor cadence, and success criteria per phase. Distinct from `calibration-guide-author` (which closes the interview loop before hire) and `hiring-rubric-author` (which scores candidates during the loop); this skill produces the post-hire ramp artifact. Use when a QA engineer has been hired and the hiring manager or team lead needs a structured first-90-days plan before the new hire's start date.
qa-jd-author
Build-an-X workflow that authors a QA job description for a given role and seniority - responsibilities drawn from the ISTQB CTFL v4.0 split between the testing role (test analysis, design, implementation, execution) and the test management role (planning, monitoring and control, completion), a must-have versus nice-to-have skills split, and the screening signals a recruiter can apply to applications. The competency vocabulary matches `hiring-rubric-author`, so the JD a candidate reads and the rubric they are scored on describe the same role. Distinct from `interview-question-author` (first artifact of running the loop; this skill produces the artifact that opens the role), from `hiring-rubric-author` (scores candidates; this skill attracts them), and from `onboarding-plan-author` (post-hire ramp). Use when opening a QA / SDET / automation / test-lead / quality-manager requisition, before anything is posted - the JD is the upstream-most artifact of the hiring chain.