User Guide

Quality Gates & NFR Library

Define non-functional requirements, enforce quality gates on stories, and track coverage across your project.

NFR Library overview

Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) are reusable quality attributes that describe how a system should behave rather than what it should do — covering areas like performance, security, scalability, and accessibility. The NFR Library (available under Settings → NFR Library) lets you define and manage NFRs at the organization or project level. Once defined, NFRs can be attached to features and used as inputs for quality gates and coverage analysis.

Creating NFRs

Each NFR entry consists of:

  • Name — a concise label, e.g. "Page load < 2 seconds".
  • Category — one of Performance, Security, Accessibility, Scalability, Reliability, or Maintainability.
  • Description — a longer explanation of the requirement.
  • Acceptance criteria (optional) — measurable conditions that define when the NFR is met.

You can define as many NFRs as needed. Categories are used for filtering and grouping in coverage reports.

NFR suggestions

When viewing a feature, click Suggest NFRs from the overflow menu. The AI analyses the feature description and suggests relevant NFRs from the library that may apply. You can review each suggestion and accept the ones that fit — accepted suggestions are attached to the feature and appear in the NFR coverage view.

Coverage tracking

The NFR coverage view shows which NFRs are covered by which features and stories. Use it to identify gaps across your project — for example, "No feature in this release has addressed accessibility requirements." The view can be filtered by NFR category, feature status, or release, making it easy to track compliance before a milestone review.

Quality gates

Quality gates are automated checks that run after story slicing. Configured under Settings → Quality Gates, each gate defines a condition that the sliced stories must meet. Example conditions include "All stories must have at least 3 acceptance criteria" or "Every feature must have an associated NFR." If a gate fails, a warning is shown on the feature detail page.

Gate types

Story-level gates

Story-level gates check individual stories. Common examples include minimum acceptance criteria count, INVEST score thresholds, or requiring that every story has an estimate. A gate fails if any story in the feature violates the condition.

Feature-level gates

Feature-level gates check the feature as a whole. Examples include NFR coverage (at least one NFR must be attached), duplicate detection results, or a minimum number of stories sliced. These gates are evaluated once per feature rather than per story.

Gate results

Failed gates display a yellow warning banner on the feature page, listing each gate that did not pass and the reason. Unlike Definition of Ready (DoR) rules, quality gates are purely advisory — they do not affect story status or block transitions. Teams can still slice, review, and approve stories even when gates are failing. The warnings serve as a signal to revisit the feature before finalising it.

Tip: Start with 2–3 NFRs that address your most common quality gaps (e.g. security review or performance threshold). You can expand the library over time based on real incident patterns and audit findings.

Audience

This feature is designed for teams in regulated industries (healthcare, finance) or any team that needs to ensure consistent quality standards across all features. By codifying NFRs and enforcing quality gates, teams can demonstrate compliance with internal policies and external regulations without adding manual overhead to the slicing workflow.