CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo

testland/career-ladder-author

Build-an-X workflow that designs a QA career ladder - parallel individual-contributor and management tracks, per-level criteria across consistent axes, and observable promotion evidence per level - modeled on public engineering career frameworks (the Dropbox Engineering Career Framework, which includes Quality Engineer and SDET roles) and the career-development guidance in Camille Fournier's The Manager's Path (ISBN 978-1491973899). The ladder defines what each level looks like over a career - not a snapshot of the team's capability today, not a scorecard for grading external candidates against one open role, and not feedback on one person's recent work. Use when a QA org needs leveling criteria - before promotion season, during compensation banding, or when senior testers ask what comes next besides management.

70

Quality

88%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide

SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

Overview
Quality
Evals
Security
Files

Quality

Content

72%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

A well-structured, actionable authoring workflow with sound progressive disclosure. Its main weaknesses are token padding from repeated framework citations and dates, and the absence of explicit validation feedback loops in the workflow.

Suggestions

Consolidate the Dropbox framework details into a single mention and drop the 'fetched 2026-06-10' dates and ISBN/chapter-name padding to tighten conciseness.

Add an explicit validation checkpoint - e.g., 'calibrate QA-ICn against the engineering ladder before publishing; if levels are not equivalent, re-align axes' - to turn implicit gates into a validate-fix-retry loop.

Tighten the inline Step 3 template or rely on the worked example earlier in the step so the skeleton does not read as incomplete guidance.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Mostly efficient domain-specific content, but it restates the Dropbox framework across sections and carries ISBN, book-chapter names, and 'fetched 2026-06-10' dates that pad tokens without adding actionable value.

2 / 3

Actionability

Concrete per-step guidance - specific level counts ('4-5 IC levels'), fixed axes, a markdown level template, and an anti-patterns table with counter-rules - plus a worked-example reference, giving actionable instruction without needing code.

3 / 3

Workflow Clarity

A clear 5-step sequence with ordering gates and checklist-style anti-patterns, but it lacks explicit validate-then-fix feedback loops, so checkpoints remain implicit rather than enforced.

2 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

Well-organized sections with the heavy worked example split into references/level-criteria-example.md - one level deep and clearly signaled from Step 3 - keeping the main body navigable.

3 / 3

Total

10

/

12

Passed

Description

100%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

A specific, well-triggered description with explicit what-and-when guidance and clear boundaries against adjacent skills. Minor verbosity from framework citations and the ISBN does not undermine its clarity.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple concrete actions - 'parallel individual-contributor and management tracks, per-level criteria across consistent axes, and observable promotion evidence per level' - rather than vague language.

3 / 3

Completeness

Explicitly states what it does (designs a QA career ladder with tracks, criteria, evidence) and when to use it via an explicit 'Use when a QA org needs leveling criteria' clause.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

'leveling criteria', 'promotion season', 'compensation banding', and 'what comes next besides management' are natural terms a QA manager would actually say when needing this skill.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Clear niche (QA career ladder authoring) reinforced by explicit negative boundaries - 'not a snapshot of the team's capability today, not a scorecard... not feedback on one person's recent work' - making conflicts with sibling skills unlikely.

3 / 3

Total

12

/

12

Passed

Validation

93%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

metadata_version

'metadata.version' is missing

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Reviewed

Table of Contents