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.
Failures without a defect
TestPulse flags every test whose latest result is Failed but that has no linked bug (any bug state, even Closed) — 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 an opt-in Quality Gate criterion (off by default; when enabled and the count is greater than 0, the verdict becomes NO-GO — the A–E grade is never capped by it).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, and count-consistent with Watch points.
Related
Quality Gate — grade & GO/NO-GO
How the verdict is computed.
Coverage depth
Is it well covered?