PM & QA Shift-Left Checklist

Purpose: Move from coordinators → ICs by producing executable inputs before development starts.

Legacy Apps

At Sprint Planning

• Write acceptance criteria as prompts (include UI states, API payloads, error codes, accessibility rules).
• Provide synthetic or anonymized datasets (cover edge cases and compliance constraints).
• Draft automated test starters (e.g., Playwright/Cypress scripts, SQL assertions).
• Define the “definition of done” clearly in each ticket.
• Align test artifacts with stakeholders before dev picks up work.

AI Apps

At Sprint Planning

• Publish mock APIs / sample payloads for early integration (simulate external systems).
• Specify data cleansing rules in natural language (include normalization, de-duplication, masking).
• Generate persona-based chatbot transcripts (angry customer, confused novice, fraudster, etc.).
• Create bias / failure simulations (multilingual, accessibility, schema drift, malicious input).
• Add compliance guardrails (HIPAA/PCI/GDPR checks) directly into acceptance criteria.

Continuous Responsibilities

• Regenerate test cases as scope changes → living UAT scripts.
• Keep datasets and personas refreshed → coverage doesn’t stagnate.
• Pair with Dev/Data/Design → ensure inputs flow into CI/CD gates.
• Track telemetry from prod → fold back into prompts, datasets, and test cases.

Reminder: If PMs and QA do not attach prompts, datasets, and test starters to a story, it isn’t ready for dev. Shift left = no merge without executable inputs.