discovery-review-criteria

name	discovery-review-criteria
description	Use when reviewing DISCOVER artefacts (triage reports, sprint proposals) for completeness, prioritization quality, and duplicate handling. Contains gate definitions G1-G6 and scoring rubric for the backlog-discoverer-reviewer lenses.

Discovery Review Criteria

Overview

Formal gate definitions and verdict rubric for the backlog-discoverer-reviewer. Applied across 3 lenses with 6 gates (G1–G6).

Lens	Gates	What it checks
Completeness	G1, G2	Was the discovery thorough? Were important issues missed?
Prioritization	G3, G4	Is prioritization coherent and the sprint realistic?
Duplicate Detection	G5, G6	Are duplicates correctly identified and linked?

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Gate Definitions (G1–G6)

Lens 1: Completeness

ID	Definition	Pass Condition	Severity
G1	Both supported discovery modes were considered, and the triage report explicitly documents selected/skipped reason for each mode with dedicated lines.	The report contains both lines: `User-assigned: selected	skipped — andSearch-based: selected
G2	No P0 or P1 issues exist in the repository but are absent from the triage report. Verify by sampling: query for label:priority/P0,priority/P1 is:open is:issue sort:created-desc, take top 5, check each appears in the triage report.	Zero critical issues absent from triage.	BLOCKER

Lens 2: Prioritization

ID	Definition	Pass Condition	Severity
G3	All P0 issues have a written justification in the Notes field. P1–P3 follows descending business value order. No priority inversions (a P2 that is clearly more urgent than a P1 in the same domain).	No priority inversions. All P0 justified.	HIGH
G4	Sprint proposal respects declared capacity. Total effort ≤ effective capacity (team-days × 0.7) for non-P0 issues. No P2/P3 issue occupies a sprint slot while a P0/P1 issue is excluded. XL issues are not in the sprint.	Capacity respected; XL issues excluded.	HIGH

Lens 3: Duplicate Detection

ID	Definition	Pass Condition	Severity
G5	No two issues in the triage report describe the same problem (normalized title similarity > 80%). Normalize: lowercase, remove stop words, sort words alphabetically, compare overlap ratio.	Zero undetected exact or near-duplicate pairs.	HIGH
G6	All issue pairs with 40–80% normalized title similarity are noted in the "Duplicates Detected" section with a recommendation (merge, link, or keep separate).	All similar pairs flagged with recommendation.	MEDIUM

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Completeness Scoring

Discovery is considered sufficient when:

1. Both supported modes were applied — or skipped modes are justified in the report
2. No P0 or P1 issues are missing from the triage (G2 sample check passes)
3. Coverage is >80% of open issues in the target area (mode-specific):
   • User-assigned: all @me issues are in the report
   • Search-based: all issues matching the declared query are in the report

Completeness is not about finding every issue — it is about ensuring critical issues are not hidden.

For single-issue (user-assigned) runs, this exact skipped rationale is recommended and should pass G1: Search-based: skipped — single user-assigned issue; no milestone or batch target.

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Priority Coherence Rules

Rule	Description
P0 always in sprint	Every P0 issue must appear in the sprint proposal, even if over capacity
P0 justification required	Every P0 issue must have a written justification in the Notes field
No P3 before P1	A P3 issue cannot be in the sprint if any P1 issue is excluded
P2 after all P1	Sprint fills P1 before P2 unless P1 is already covered
XL never in sprint	XL issues must be split — they cannot enter DISCUSS as-is
No priority inversion	A P2 issue with more urgency than a P1 in the same domain = G3 fail

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Duplicate Similarity Thresholds

Level	Similarity	Action Required
EXACT	> 95%	One issue must be labeled status/duplicate and linked to the original
NEAR	80–95%	Recommendation to merge. Both issues linked. Documented in triage.
RELATED	40–80%	Flagged in triage as "related". Recommendation documented. No merge required.
DIFFERENT	< 40%	No action required

G5 threshold: > 80% = must flag (covers both EXACT and NEAR) G6 threshold: 40–80% = should flag (covers RELATED)

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Sprint Capacity Rules

Rule	Applies To
P0 overrides capacity	P0 issues enter sprint regardless of effective capacity
Effective capacity = team-days × 0.7	Applies to P1/P2/P3 issues
Over-capacity P0 must be documented	Triage report must note "P0 override"
XL exclusion is absolute	No XL issue enters sprint — G4 fail if present
P2/P3 after all P1	P2/P3 issues fill remaining capacity after all P1s

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Verdict Derivation Table

Condition	Verdict
G2 fails (BLOCKER: P0/P1 missing from triage)	rejected
G1 fails (HIGH: modes not covered)	changes_requested
G3 fails (HIGH: priority inversions or missing P0 justification)	changes_requested
G4 fails (HIGH: capacity violated or XL in sprint)	changes_requested
G5 fails (HIGH: undetected near-duplicates)	changes_requested
G6 fails only (MEDIUM: related pairs not flagged)	changes_requested
All gates pass	approved

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References

• gate-definitions.md — step-by-step gate checklists with auto-insurance examples
• completeness-heuristics.md — when to stop discovering; coverage signals; anti-patterns
• verdict-rubric.md — verdict derivation with 3 example verdict outputs (approved, changes_requested, rejected)