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Watch points

A Watch points panel sits under the quality badge (and in the PDF) to name what weighs on the verdict, instead of leaving it as counters. Three groups, each shown only when non-empty:
  • Open blocking bugs (#id · severity · title).
  • In-scope requirements without any test.
  • In-scope user stories not executed.
Each entry links to the work item. “Blocking” uses one shared definition (an open bug, Critical or High). It highlights already-computed data — no new metric, no extra call. It stays honest: a green check appears only on a clear GO; on a NO-GO that came from elsewhere it stays neutral and points you to the Quality details.

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Failures without a defect

TestPulse flags every test whose latest result is Failed but that has no bug (any bug state, even Closed) — with the default bug source, no bug attached to any of its run results; in the Test case and User Story links mode, no bug linked by Tested By. It is read-only, with no extra API call. It appears as a dedicated section (each test links out, with an Open a bug button that opens the native Azure DevOps bug form, pre-filled — never a write), as a counter on the widget, and as a Quality Gate criterion. Since v2.64.0 it is on by default on all three scales: when the count is greater than 0, the verdict becomes NO-GO and the grade is capped at C. Defect hygiene only ever counted declared bugs, so a failed test with no linked bug used to score full marks while declaring the bug properly cost points — the incentive ran backwards.

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Audited GO/NO-GO override

The GO/NO-GO verdict is deterministic. You can overlay a human decision on top of it — without ever changing the computation. Enable “Allow GO/NO-GO decision override” in Settings (project-level, off by default; the Strict profile keeps it disabled). A Release decision control then lets you follow the computation or force GO / NO-GO. When your decision differs from the computation, a justification is mandatory, and the author and timestamp are captured. The report shows computed → decided side by side (header, widget, PDF, Word). A manual GO that crosses a hard floor (an open blocking bug, an untested story, a failure without a defect) is flagged in red with the exact reasons. The A–E grade always stays the computed one — only the verdict is overlaid.
An Open bugs block also appears at the top of the report whenever there is at least one open bug — sorted by severity, then priority, then creation date (newest first), and count-consistent with Watch points.

Quality Gate — grade & GO/NO-GO

How the verdict is computed.

Coverage depth

Is it well covered?