Sub-function
Test & Assurance
Owns test run work end to end inside Engineering. Runs 3 lines across 15 stations, drains the repeatable share into the C2L tower, and holds 3 human gates.
Estate rating
BBB
73 / 100
Test generation, selection and triage are the highest-autonomy work in Engineering. The quality gate signature before release stays with a named human.
Agents
8
Lines
3
Units / wk
16,000
Timetable vs actual
6.9h → 6.6h
Cost / unit
$4.20
was $13
Run-rate saving
$7.4M
annualized at this volume
The 8 agents running this sub-function
Grouped by what they are for, not by where they sit. The agent org is process-shaped.
Test Orchestrator
Owns the test & assurance lane end to end. Sequences the other agents, holds the timetable, and decides what surfaces to a human.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Quality Engineering when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Test Generation Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of test & assurance inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Quality Engineering when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Performance Test Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of test & assurance inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Quality Engineering when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Regression Selection Agent
Executes the test & assurance step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Quality Engineering when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Flaky Test Agent
Executes the test & assurance step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Quality Engineering when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Test Data Agent
Executes the test & assurance step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Quality Engineering when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Coverage Gap Agent
Executes the test & assurance step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Quality Engineering when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Test & Assurance Challenger Agent
Adversarial reviewer for test & assurance. Argues the opposite case on every position and flags where the evidence does not carry the claim.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates when a ratified position is still running against a break condition it flagged.
Estate rating breakdown
Seven control dimensions. Judgment readiness runs against autonomy on purpose.
People
What the humans stopped doing, and what they do now.
Roles held flat; released hours absorbed volume growth rather than headcount reduction.
Lines running in this sub-function
Each line is a workflow. Click a line to walk it station by station.
Strategy positions this sub-function holds
An agent that only executes is a robot. These are the calls it made, the argument against each one, and what would prove it wrong.
Test & Assurance Operating Position
Rejectedv3Which parts of test & assurance should deliberately stay human, and how do we defend that against a cost argument?
Hold the ceiling at A4 for test & assurance. Test generation, selection and triage are the highest-autonomy work in Engineering. The quality gate signature before release stays with a named human. Raise it only after two consecutive quarters where the override rate stays under five percent and every override has a written cause.
confidence
88%
The challenge — Test & Assurance Challenger Agent
Test & Assurance Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 3 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 13 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per test run stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No external comparator on a like-for-like unit definition
- ·Exception cases under $42k are sampled, not fully measured
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $585k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | live |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $1165k to build controls | Override rate is 5 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $265k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | under review |
Policy register
The rules the agents above are bound by. Version, owner, approver, and the agents each rule constrains.
| Ref | Rule | Scope | Owner agent | Approved by | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EN5-POL-200 | Test & Assurance Decision Envelope Agents in this lane may act without a human when the test run sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. Outside it, the unit holds at a gate with a named approver and a running clock. binds 6 agents · Global | envelope | Test Orchestrator | Director, Quality Engineering | v1.7 | Active |
| EN5-POL-201 | Test & Assurance Evidence Standard Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. An action with no evidence record is treated as a control failure, not a fast decision. binds 6 agents · APAC | evidence | Test Orchestrator | Director, Quality Engineering | v3.4 | Active |