# Consultancy Practices

> Apply effective software quality consultancy practices. Use when consulting, advising clients, or establishing consultancy workflows.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-proffesor-for-testing-agentic-qe-consultancy-practices`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [proffesor-for-testing](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/proffesor-for-testing)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [proffesor-for-testing](https://github.com/proffesor-for-testing)
- **Source:** https://github.com/proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe/tree/main/.claude/skills/consultancy-practices
- **Website:** https://agentic-qe.dev/

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-proffesor-for-testing-agentic-qe-consultancy-practices
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Consultancy Practices

When consulting on quality:
1. LISTEN FIRST: Understand their context before prescribing solutions
2. DISCOVER: What's the pain? What have they tried? What are constraints?
3. PRIORITIZE: Impact/effort matrix - high impact, low effort first
4. TRANSFER KNOWLEDGE: Leave them better, not dependent on you
5. MEASURE: Define success metrics upfront, track weekly

**Engagement Types:**
- **Assessment (1-4 weeks)**: Discover, analyze, recommend
- **Transformation (3-12 months)**: Implement new practices
- **Advisory (ongoing)**: Strategic guidance, course-correct
- **Crisis (1-4 weeks)**: Fix critical issues blocking production

**Key Questions:**
- "Walk me through your last deployment"
- "Tell me about a recent bug that escaped to production"
- "If you could fix one thing, what would it be?"

## Quick Reference Card

---

## Common Patterns (What Clients Say vs. What They Mean)

### "We Need Test Automation"

**What they say:** "We need test automation"
**What they mean:** "Manual testing is too slow/expensive"

**Discovery:** How long is regression? What's deployment frequency?

**Typical Finding:** They need faster feedback, not "automation"

**Recommendation:**
1. Unit tests for new code (TDD)
2. Smoke tests for critical paths
3. Keep exploratory for discovery
4. Build automation incrementally

### "Fix Our Quality Problem"

**What they say:** "We have too many bugs"
**What they mean:** "Something is broken but we don't know what"

**Discovery:** Where found? What types? When introduced?

**Typical Finding:** No test strategy, testing too late, poor feedback loops

**Recommendation:**
1. Shift testing left
2. Improve coverage on critical paths
3. Speed up CI/CD feedback
4. Better requirements/acceptance criteria

### "We Want to Scale Quality"

**What they say:** "Growing fast, quality can't keep up"
**What they mean:** "Can't hire enough QA fast enough"

**Discovery:** Current QA:Dev ratio? Where's QA spending time?

**Typical Finding:** QA is bottleneck - manual regression, gatekeeping

**Recommendation:**
1. Make QA strategic, not tactical
2. Developers own test automation
3. QA focuses on exploratory, risk analysis
4. Use agentic approaches for scale

---

## Difficult Situations

**"We already tried that"**
→ "Tell me what you tried and what didn't work" (learn from their experience)

**"Our context is special"**
→ "Help me understand what makes yours special" (they might be right, or making excuses)

**"We don't have budget/time"**
→ "What's the cost of not fixing this? Let's start small" (show ROI)

**"That won't work here"**
→ "What specific constraints? Let's adapt" (find what WILL work)

---

## Agent Integration

```typescript
// Automated codebase assessment
const assessment = await Task("Assess Codebase", {
  scope: 'client-project/',
  depth: 'comprehensive',
  reportFormat: 'executive-summary'
}, "qe-quality-analyzer");

// Returns: { qualityScore, testCoverage, technicalDebt, recommendations }

// ROI analysis for quality initiatives
const roi = await Task("Calculate ROI", {
  currentState: { defectEscapeRate: 0.15, mttr: 48 },
  proposedImprovements: ['test-automation', 'ci-cd-pipeline'],
  timeframe: '6-months'
}, "qe-quality-analyzer");

// Returns: { estimatedCost, estimatedSavings, paybackPeriod }
```

---

## Agent Coordination Hints

### Memory Namespace
```
aqe/consultancy/
├── assessments/*      - Client assessments
├── recommendations/*  - Prioritized recommendations
├── roi-analysis/*     - ROI calculations
└── progress/*         - Implementation tracking
```

### Fleet Coordination
```typescript
const consultingFleet = await FleetManager.coordinate({
  strategy: 'client-engagement',
  agents: [
    'qe-quality-analyzer',          // Assess current state
    'qe-regression-risk-analyzer',  // Risk assessment
    'qe-quality-gate',              // Define quality gates
    'qe-deployment-readiness'       // Deployment maturity
  ],
  topology: 'hierarchical'
});
```

---

## Related Skills
- [quality-metrics](../quality-metrics/) - Metrics for client reporting
- [risk-based-testing](../risk-based-testing/) - Client risk assessment
- [holistic-testing-pact](../holistic-testing-pact/) - Comprehensive strategy

---

## Remember

**Good consulting is about empowering teams, not creating dependency.** Your success is measured by them not needing you anymore - while still wanting to work with you again.

**Best compliment:** "We've got this now, but when we tackle X next year, we're calling you."

Be honest. Be helpful. Be context-driven. Leave them better.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [proffesor-for-testing](https://github.com/proffesor-for-testing)
- **Source:** [proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe](https://github.com/proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe)
- **License:** MIT
- **Homepage:** https://agentic-qe.dev/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-proffesor-for-testing-agentic-qe-consultancy-practices
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/proffesor-for-testing
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

---
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