How to Learn Testing with TEA Academy

How to Learn Testing with TEA Academy

Learn testing through seven self-paced TEA Academy sessions. The skill saves your progress so you can pause and resume.

When to Use This

• New QA engineers: Complete onboarding in testing fundamentals
• Developers: Learn testing from an integration perspective
• Team leads: Understand architecture patterns and team practices
• VPs/Managers: Grasp testing strategy and quality metrics
• Anyone: Who wants to learn testing without requiring an instructor

What You’ll Learn

7 Progressive Sessions

1. Quick Start (30 min): TEA Lite intro, understand engagement models
2. Core Concepts (45 min): Risk-based testing (P0-P3), Definition of Done
3. Architecture & Patterns (60 min): Fixtures, network-first patterns, data factories
4. Test Design (60 min): Risk assessment and coverage planning skill
5. ATDD & Automate (60 min): TDD red-green approach, test generation
6. Quality & Trace (45 min): Test review (rubric 5.0 criteria and severity scoring), coverage traceability
7. Advanced Patterns (ongoing): Explore 59 knowledge fragments on-demand

What You’ll Gain

Each session produces notes you can use on your project. The completion summary records your scores and the topics covered.

Prerequisites

• An AI coding assistant that supports skills, with BMad core and TEA installed and bmad setup tea run; Getting Started shows the install
• 30-90 minutes per session (you can pause and resume)

How It Works

Starting Fresh

• Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf: /bmad-tea-teach-me-testing
• Codex: $bmad-tea-teach-me-testing
• Inside a /bmad-tea chat: TMT

Full invocation rules: Invoking a TEA Skill.

Initial Assessment

The skill will ask about:

• Your role: QA, Dev, Lead, or VP (customizes examples)
• Experience level: Beginner, intermediate, or experienced
• Learning goals: What you want to achieve
• Pain points: (Optional) Current testing challenges

Session Menu (The Hub)

After assessment, you’ll see a menu of all 7 sessions with:

• ✅ Completed sessions (with scores)
• 🔄 In-progress sessions
• ⬜ Not-started sessions
• Completion percentage
• Recommended next session

Choose any session from the menu.

Session Flow

Each session follows this pattern:

1. Teaching: Concepts presented with role-adapted examples
2. Quiz: 3 questions to validate understanding (≥70% to pass)
3. Session Notes: Artifact generated with key takeaways
4. Progress Update: Automatic save (can pause anytime)
5. Return to Menu: Choose next session or exit

Progress Tracking

Your progress is automatically saved, named by the user_name in your BMad core configuration:

• Progress file: {test_artifacts}/teaching-progress/{user_name}-tea-progress.yaml
• Session notes: {test_artifacts}/tea-academy/{user_name}/session-{N}-notes.md
• Completion summary: {test_artifacts}/tea-academy/{user_name}/tea-completion-summary.md (after all 7 sessions)

Resuming Later

Run the skill again to resume from your saved progress.

Learning Paths by Experience

Beginners (New to Testing)

Recommended path: Sessions 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7

Start at Session 1 and work through sequentially. Each session builds on previous concepts.

Time commitment: 1-2 weeks (30-90 min per session)

Intermediate (Have Written Tests)

Recommended path: Sessions 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7

You might breeze through Sessions 1-2 and focus on 3-6.

Time commitment: 1 week (can skip familiar topics)

Experienced (Strong Testing Background)

Recommended path: Jump to Sessions 3, 4, 7

Skip fundamentals, focus on:

• Session 3: TEA architecture patterns
• Session 4: Test Design skill
• Session 7: Advanced patterns (59 knowledge fragments)

Time commitment: 3-4 hours (highly targeted)

Session Details

Session 1: Quick Start (30 min)

Topics:

• What is TEA and why it exists
• TEA Lite approach (30-minute value)
• Engagement models (Lite/Solo/Integrated/Enterprise/Brownfield)
• Automate skill overview

Resources: TEA Overview, TEA Lite Quickstart, Automate Skill docs

Session 2: Core Concepts (45 min)

Topics:

• Testing as engineering philosophy
• Risk-based testing (P0-P3 matrix)
• Probability × Impact scoring
• Definition of Done (7 quality principles)

Resources:

• Docs: Testing as Engineering, Risk-Based Testing, Test Quality Standards
• Knowledge fragments: test-quality.md, probability-impact.md

Session 3: Architecture & Patterns (60 min)

Topics:

• Fixture composition patterns
• Network-first patterns (prevent race conditions)
• Data factories
• Step-file architecture

Resources:

• Docs: Fixture Architecture, Network-First Patterns, Step-File Architecture
• Knowledge fragments: fixture-architecture.md, network-first.md, data-factories.md

Session 4: Test Design (60 min)

Topics:

• Test Design skill
• Risk/testability assessment
• Coverage planning (unit/integration/E2E)
• Test priorities matrix (P0-P3 coverage targets)

Resources:

• Docs: Test Design skill
• Knowledge fragments: test-levels-framework.md, test-priorities-matrix.md

Session 5: ATDD & Automate (60 min)

Topics:

• Automate red mode (acceptance scaffolds before implementation)
• TDD red-green-refactor loop
• Automate expand mode (coverage for existing code)
• API testing patterns

Resources:

• Docs: Automate red and expand mode
• Knowledge fragments: component-tdd.md, api-testing-patterns.md, api-request.md

Session 6: Quality & Trace (45 min)

Topics:

• Test Review skill: rubric 5.0 criteria, deductions, severity caps (69/79/89/99), and a bonus cap of 25
• Trace skill (coverage traceability)
• Quality metrics that matter (P0/P1 coverage vs vanity metrics)
• Release gate decisions

Resources: Test Review, Trace skill docs

Session 7: Advanced Patterns (Ongoing)

Topics:

• Menu-driven exploration of 59 knowledge fragments
• 5 categories: Testing Patterns, Playwright Utils, Configuration & Governance, Quality Frameworks, Auth & Security
• Deep-dive into specific patterns as needed
• GitHub links for browsing source

Resources:

• Knowledge fragments: all 59
• GitHub: Knowledge Base Repository

Completion Summary

Complete all 7 sessions to receive your TEA Academy completion summary with:

• Session completion dates and scores
• Average score across all sessions
• Skills acquired checklist
• Learning artifacts paths
• Recommended next steps

Tips for Success

Practice each topic on your project before moving on. Pause whenever needed; the skill saves progress after each quiz.

Role-Based Customization

The skill adapts examples based on your role:

• QA Engineers: Practical testing focus, skill usage, coverage expansion
• Developers: Integration perspective, TDD approach, API testing
• Tech Leads: Architecture decisions, team patterns, code review standards
• VPs/Managers: Strategy, ROI, quality metrics, team scaling

Troubleshooting

Progress file not found

If you’ve run the skill before but it doesn’t detect your progress:

• Check: {test_artifacts}/teaching-progress/{user_name}-tea-progress.yaml
• A changed user_name looks for a different file; the skill creates a new one on first run

Quiz failing repeatedly

If scoring <70% on quizzes:

• Select [R] to review content again
• Or select [C] to continue (score recorded, you can retake later)

Want to restart from scratch

Delete your progress file. {test_artifacts} is the test_artifacts value under [modules.tea] in _bmad/config.toml (default {project-root}/_bmad-output/test-artifacts), and {user_name} is the user_name from your BMad core configuration. List teaching-progress/ first to confirm the file name. With the default folder and the example name alex:

ls _bmad-output/test-artifacts/teaching-progress/
rm _bmad-output/test-artifacts/teaching-progress/alex-tea-progress.yaml

Your session notes under tea-academy/ stay; delete them separately if you want them gone.

Related Skills

Use these skills to practice:

• Framework: Set up test framework
• Test Design: Plan test coverage
• Automation red mode (ATDD): Generate and verify failing acceptance tests first
• Automation expand mode: Add coverage, run generated tests, and repair test issues
• Test Review: Audit test quality
• Trace: Requirements traceability

Additional Resources

• Documentation: TEA Overview
• Knowledge Base: Knowledge Base Reference
• GitHub Fragments: Knowledge Base Repository

Support

Questions or issues? See Troubleshooting or file an issue on the GitHub repository.