How to Run Trace with TEA

Use TEA’s trace workflow for requirements traceability and quality gate decisions. This is a two-phase workflow: Phase 1 analyzes coverage, Phase 2 makes the go/no-go decision.

When to Use This

Phase 1: Requirements Traceability

Map acceptance criteria to implemented tests
Identify coverage gaps
Prioritize missing tests
Refresh coverage after each story/epic

Phase 2: Quality Gate Decision

Make go/no-go decision for release
Validate coverage meets thresholds
Document gate decision with evidence
Support business-approved waivers

Prerequisites

BMad Method installed
TEA agent available
Requirements defined (stories, acceptance criteria, test design)
Tests implemented
For brownfield: Existing codebase with tests

Steps

1. Run the Trace Workflow

trace

2. Specify Phase

TEA will ask which phase you’re running.

Phase 1: Requirements Traceability

Analyze coverage
Identify gaps
Generate recommendations

Phase 2: Quality Gate Decision

Make PASS/CONCERNS/FAIL/WAIVED decision
Requires Phase 1 complete

Typical flow: Run Phase 1 first, review gaps, then run Phase 2 for gate decision.

Phase 1: Requirements Traceability

3. Provide Requirements Source

TEA will ask where requirements are defined.

Options:

Source	Example	Best For
Story file	`story-profile-management.md`	Single story coverage
Test design	`test-design-epic-1.md`	Epic coverage
PRD	`PRD.md`	System-level coverage
Multiple	All of the above	Comprehensive analysis

Example Response:

Requirements:
- story-profile-management.md (acceptance criteria)
- test-design-epic-1.md (test priorities)

4. Specify Test Location

TEA will ask where tests are located.

Example:

Test location: tests/
Include:
- tests/api/
- tests/e2e/

5. Specify Focus Areas (Optional)

Example:

Focus on:
- Profile CRUD operations
- Validation scenarios
- Authorization checks

6. Review Coverage Matrix

TEA generates a comprehensive traceability matrix.

Traceability Matrix (`traceability-matrix.md`):

# Requirements Traceability Matrix

**Date:** 2026-01-13
**Scope:** Epic 1 - User Profile Management
**Phase:** Phase 1 (Traceability Analysis)

## Coverage Summary

| Metric                 | Count | Percentage |
| ---------------------- | ----- | ---------- |
| **Total Requirements** | 15    | 100%       |
| **Full Coverage**      | 11    | 73%        |
| **Partial Coverage**   | 3     | 20%        |
| **No Coverage**        | 1     | 7%         |

### By Priority

| Priority | Total | Covered | Percentage        |
| -------- | ----- | ------- | ----------------- |
| **P0**   | 5     | 5       | 100% ✅            |
| **P1**   | 6     | 5       | 83% ⚠️             |
| **P2**   | 3     | 1       | 33% ⚠️             |
| **P3**   | 1     | 0       | 0% ✅ (acceptable) |

---

## Detailed Traceability

### ✅ Requirement 1: User can view their profile (P0)

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- User navigates to /profile
- Profile displays name, email, avatar
- Data is current (not cached)

**Test Coverage:** FULL ✅

**Tests:**
- `tests/e2e/profile-view.spec.ts:15` - "should display profile page with current data"
  - ✅ Navigates to /profile
  - ✅ Verifies name, email visible
  - ✅ Verifies avatar displayed
  - ✅ Validates data freshness via API assertion

- `tests/api/profile.spec.ts:8` - "should fetch user profile via API"
  - ✅ Calls GET /api/profile
  - ✅ Validates response schema
  - ✅ Confirms all fields present

---

### ⚠️ Requirement 2: User can edit profile (P0)

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- User clicks "Edit Profile"
- Can modify name, email, bio
- Can upload avatar
- Changes are persisted
- Success message shown

**Test Coverage:** PARTIAL ⚠️

**Tests:**
- `tests/e2e/profile-edit.spec.ts:22` - "should edit and save profile"
  - ✅ Clicks edit button
  - ✅ Modifies name and email
  - ⚠️ **Does NOT test bio field**
  - ❌ **Does NOT test avatar upload**
  - ✅ Verifies persistence
  - ✅ Verifies success message

- `tests/api/profile.spec.ts:25` - "should update profile via PATCH"
  - ✅ Calls PATCH /api/profile
  - ✅ Validates update response
  - ⚠️ **Only tests name/email, not bio/avatar**

**Missing Coverage:**
- Bio field not tested in E2E or API
- Avatar upload not tested

**Gap Severity:** HIGH (P0 requirement, critical path)

---

### ✅ Requirement 3: Invalid email shows validation error (P1)

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- Enter invalid email format
- See error message
- Cannot save changes

**Test Coverage:** FULL ✅

**Tests:**
- `tests/e2e/profile-edit.spec.ts:45` - "should show validation error for invalid email"
- `tests/api/profile.spec.ts:50` - "should return 400 for invalid email"

---

### ❌ Requirement 15: Profile export as PDF (P2)

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- User clicks "Export Profile"
- PDF downloads with profile data

**Test Coverage:** NONE ❌

**Gap Analysis:**
- **Priority:** P2 (medium)
- **Risk:** Low (non-critical feature)
- **Recommendation:** Add in next iteration (not blocking for release)

---

## Gap Prioritization

### Critical Gaps (Must Fix Before Release)

| Gap | Requirement              | Priority | Risk | Recommendation      |
| --- | ------------------------ | -------- | ---- | ------------------- |
| 1   | Bio field not tested     | P0       | High | Add E2E + API tests |
| 2   | Avatar upload not tested | P0       | High | Add E2E + API tests |

**Estimated Effort:** 3 hours
**Owner:** QA team
**Deadline:** Before release

### Non-Critical Gaps (Can Defer)

| Gap | Requirement               | Priority | Risk | Recommendation      |
| --- | ------------------------- | -------- | ---- | ------------------- |
| 3   | Profile export not tested | P2       | Low  | Add in v1.3 release |

**Estimated Effort:** 2 hours
**Owner:** QA team
**Deadline:** Next release (February)

---

## Recommendations

### 1. Add Bio Field Tests

**Tests Needed (Vanilla Playwright):**
```typescript
// tests/e2e/profile-edit.spec.ts
test('should edit bio field', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/profile');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Edit' }).click();
  await page.getByLabel('Bio').fill('New bio text');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save' }).click();
  await expect(page.getByText('New bio text')).toBeVisible();
});

// tests/api/profile.spec.ts
test('should update bio via API', async ({ request }) => {
  const response = await request.patch('/api/profile', {
    data: { bio: 'Updated bio' }
  });
  expect(response.ok()).toBeTruthy();
  const { bio } = await response.json();
  expect(bio).toBe('Updated bio');
});

With Playwright Utils:

import { test } from '../support/fixtures';  // Composed with authToken

test('should edit bio field', async ({ page, authToken }) => {
  await page.goto('/profile');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Edit' }).click();
  await page.getByLabel('Bio').fill('New bio text');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save' }).click();
  await expect(page.getByText('New bio text')).toBeVisible();
});

// tests/api/profile.spec.ts
import { test as base, expect } from '@playwright/test';
import { test as apiRequestFixture } from '@seontechnologies/playwright-utils/api-request/fixtures';
import { createAuthFixtures } from '@seontechnologies/playwright-utils/auth-session';
import { mergeTests } from '@playwright/test';

// Merge API request + auth fixtures
const authFixtureTest = base.extend(createAuthFixtures());
const test = mergeTests(apiRequestFixture, authFixtureTest);

test('should update bio via API', async ({ apiRequest, authToken }) => {
  const { status, body } = await apiRequest({
    method: 'PATCH',
    path: '/api/profile',
    body: { bio: 'Updated bio' },
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${authToken}` }
  });

  expect(status).toBe(200);
  expect(body.bio).toBe('Updated bio');
});

Note: authToken requires auth-session fixture setup. See Integrate Playwright Utils.

2. Add Avatar Upload Tests

Tests Needed:

test('should upload avatar image', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/profile');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Edit' }).click();

  // Upload file
  await page.setInputFiles('[type="file"]', 'fixtures/avatar.png');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save' }).click();

  // Verify uploaded image displays
  await expect(page.locator('img[alt="Profile avatar"]')).toBeVisible();
});

// tests/api/profile.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
import fs from 'fs/promises';

test('should accept valid image upload', async ({ request }) => {
  const response = await request.post('/api/profile/avatar', {
    multipart: {
      file: {
        name: 'avatar.png',
        mimeType: 'image/png',
        buffer: await fs.readFile('fixtures/avatar.png')
      }
    }
  });
  expect(response.ok()).toBeTruthy();
});

Next Steps

After reviewing traceability:

Fix critical gaps - Add tests for P0/P1 requirements
Run test-review - Ensure new tests meet quality standards
Run Phase 2 - Make gate decision after gaps addressed

---

## Phase 2: Quality Gate Decision

After Phase 1 coverage analysis is complete, run Phase 2 for the gate decision.

**Prerequisites:**
- Phase 1 traceability matrix complete
- Test execution results available (must have test results)

**Note:** Phase 2 will skip if test execution results aren't provided. The workflow requires actual test run results to make gate decisions.

### 7. Run Phase 2

trace

Select "Phase 2: Quality Gate Decision"

### 8. Provide Additional Context

TEA will ask for:

**Gate Type:**
- Story gate (small release)
- Epic gate (larger release)
- Release gate (production deployment)
- Hotfix gate (emergency fix)

**Decision Mode:**
- **Deterministic** - Rule-based (coverage %, quality scores)
- **Manual** - Team decision with TEA guidance

**Example:**

Gate type: Epic gate Decision mode: Deterministic

### 9. Provide Supporting Evidence

TEA will request:

**Phase 1 Results:**

traceability-matrix.md (from Phase 1)

**Test Quality (Optional):**

test-review.md (from test-review)

**NFR Assessment (Optional):**

nfr-assessment.md (from nfr-assess)

### 10. Review Gate Decision

TEA makes evidence-based gate decision and writes to separate file.

#### Gate Decision (`gate-decision-{gate_type}-{story_id}.md`):

```markdown
---

# Phase 2: Quality Gate Decision

**Gate Type:** Epic Gate
**Decision:** PASS ✅
**Date:** 2026-01-13
**Approvers:** Product Manager, Tech Lead, QA Lead

## Decision Summary

**Verdict:** Ready to release

**Evidence:**
- P0 coverage: 100% (5/5 requirements)
- P1 coverage: 100% (6/6 requirements)
- P2 coverage: 33% (1/3 requirements) - acceptable
- Test quality score: 84/100
- NFR assessment: PASS

## Coverage Analysis

| Priority | Required Coverage | Actual Coverage | Status                |
| -------- | ----------------- | --------------- | --------------------- |
| **P0**   | 100%              | 100%            | ✅ PASS                |
| **P1**   | 90%               | 100%            | ✅ PASS                |
| **P2**   | 50%               | 33%             | ⚠️ Below (acceptable)  |
| **P3**   | 20%               | 0%              | ✅ PASS (low priority) |

**Rationale:**
- All critical path (P0) requirements fully tested
- All high-value (P1) requirements fully tested
- P2 gap (profile export) is low risk and deferred to next release

## Quality Metrics

| Metric             | Threshold | Actual | Status |
| ------------------ | --------- | ------ | ------ |
| P0/P1 Coverage     | >95%      | 100%   | ✅      |
| Test Quality Score | >80       | 84     | ✅      |
| NFR Status         | PASS      | PASS   | ✅      |

## Risks and Mitigations

### Accepted Risks

**Risk 1: Profile export not tested (P2)**
- **Impact:** Medium (users can't export profile)
- **Mitigation:** Feature flag disabled by default
- **Plan:** Add tests in v1.3 release (February)
- **Monitoring:** Track feature flag usage

## Approvals

- [x] **Product Manager** - Business requirements met (Approved: 2026-01-13)
- [x] **Tech Lead** - Technical quality acceptable (Approved: 2026-01-13)
- [x] **QA Lead** - Test coverage sufficient (Approved: 2026-01-13)

## Next Steps

### Deployment
1. Merge to main branch
2. Deploy to staging
3. Run smoke tests in staging
4. Deploy to production
5. Monitor for 24 hours

### Monitoring
- Set alerts for profile endpoint (P99 > 200ms)
- Track error rates (target: <0.1%)
- Monitor profile export feature flag usage

### Future Work
- Add profile export tests (v1.3)
- Expand P2 coverage to 50%

Gate Decision Rules

TEA uses deterministic rules when decision_mode = “deterministic”:

P0 Coverage	P1 Coverage	Overall Coverage	Decision
100%	≥90%	≥80%	PASS ✅
100%	80-89%	≥80%	CONCERNS ⚠️
<100%	Any	Any	FAIL ❌
Any	<80%	Any	FAIL ❌
Any	Any	<80%	FAIL ❌
Any	Any	Any	WAIVED ⏭️ (with approval)

Detailed Rules:

PASS: P0=100%, P1≥90%, Overall≥80%
CONCERNS: P0=100%, P1 80-89%, Overall≥80% (below threshold but not critical)
FAIL: P0<100% OR P1<80% OR Overall<80% (critical gaps)

PASS ✅: All criteria met, ready to release

CONCERNS ⚠️: Some criteria not met, but:

Mitigation plan exists
Risk is acceptable
Team approves proceeding
Monitoring in place

FAIL ❌: Critical criteria not met:

P0 requirements not tested
Critical security vulnerabilities
System is broken
Cannot deploy

WAIVED ⏭️: Business approves proceeding despite concerns:

Documented business justification
Accepted risks quantified
Approver signatures
Future plans documented

Example CONCERNS Decision

## Decision Summary

**Verdict:** CONCERNS ⚠️ - Proceed with monitoring

**Evidence:**
- P0 coverage: 100%
- P1 coverage: 85% (below 90% target)
- Test quality: 78/100 (below 80 target)

**Gaps:**
- 1 P1 requirement not tested (avatar upload)
- Test quality score slightly below threshold

**Mitigation:**
- Avatar upload not critical for v1.2 launch
- Test quality issues are minor (no flakiness)
- Monitoring alerts configured

**Approvals:**
- Product Manager: APPROVED (business priority to launch)
- Tech Lead: APPROVED (technical risk acceptable)

Example FAIL Decision

## Decision Summary

**Verdict:** FAIL ❌ - Cannot release

**Evidence:**
- P0 coverage: 60% (below 95% threshold)
- Critical security vulnerability (CVE-2024-12345)
- Test quality: 55/100

**Blockers:**
1. **Login flow not tested** (P0 requirement)
   - Critical path completely untested
   - Must add E2E and API tests

2. **SQL injection vulnerability**
   - Critical security issue
   - Must fix before deployment

**Actions Required:**
1. Add login tests (QA team, 2 days)
2. Fix SQL injection (backend team, 1 day)
3. Re-run security scan (DevOps, 1 hour)
4. Re-run trace after fixes

**Cannot proceed until all blockers resolved.**

What You Get

Phase 1: Traceability Matrix

Requirement-to-test mapping
Coverage classification (FULL/PARTIAL/NONE)
Gap identification with priorities
Actionable recommendations

Phase 2: Gate Decision

Go/no-go verdict (PASS/CONCERNS/FAIL/WAIVED)
Evidence summary
Approval signatures
Next steps and monitoring plan

Usage Patterns

Greenfield Projects

Phase 3:

After architecture complete:
1. Run test-design (system-level)
2. Run trace Phase 1 (baseline)
3. Use for implementation-readiness gate

Phase 4:

After each epic/story:
1. Run trace Phase 1 (refresh coverage)
2. Identify gaps
3. Add missing tests

Release Gate:

Before deployment:
1. Run trace Phase 1 (final coverage check)
2. Run trace Phase 2 (make gate decision)
3. Get approvals
4. Deploy (if PASS or WAIVED)

Brownfield Projects

Phase 2:

Before planning new work:
1. Run trace Phase 1 (establish baseline)
2. Understand existing coverage
3. Plan testing strategy

Phase 4:

After each epic/story:
1. Run trace Phase 1 (refresh)
2. Compare to baseline
3. Track coverage improvement

Release Gate:

Before deployment:
1. Run trace Phase 1 (final check)
2. Run trace Phase 2 (gate decision)
3. Compare to baseline
4. Deploy if coverage maintained or improved

Tips

Run Phase 1 Frequently

Don’t wait until release gate:

After Story 1: trace Phase 1 (identify gaps early)
After Story 2: trace Phase 1 (refresh)
After Story 3: trace Phase 1 (refresh)
Before Release: trace Phase 1 + Phase 2 (final gate)

Benefit: Catch gaps early when they’re cheap to fix.

Use Coverage Trends

Track improvement over time:

## Coverage Trend

| Date       | Epic     | P0/P1 Coverage | Quality Score | Status         |
| ---------- | -------- | -------------- | ------------- | -------------- |
| 2026-01-01 | Baseline | 45%            | -             | Starting point |
| 2026-01-08 | Epic 1   | 78%            | 72            | Improving      |
| 2026-01-15 | Epic 2   | 92%            | 84            | Near target    |
| 2026-01-20 | Epic 3   | 100%           | 88            | Ready!         |

Set Coverage Targets by Priority

Don’t aim for 100% across all priorities:

Recommended Targets:

P0: 100% (critical path must be tested)
P1: 90% (high-value scenarios)
P2: 50% (nice-to-have features)
P3: 20% (low-value edge cases)

Use Classification Strategically

FULL ✅: Requirement completely tested

E2E test covers full user workflow
API test validates backend behavior
All acceptance criteria covered

PARTIAL ⚠️: Some aspects tested

E2E test exists but missing scenarios
API test exists but incomplete
Some acceptance criteria not covered

NONE ❌: No tests exist

Requirement identified but not tested
May be intentional (low priority) or oversight

Classification helps prioritize:

Fix NONE coverage for P0/P1 requirements first
Enhance PARTIAL coverage for P0 requirements
Accept PARTIAL or NONE for P2/P3 if time-constrained

Automate Gate Decisions

Use traceability in CI:

- name: Check coverage
  run: |
    # Run trace Phase 1
    # Parse coverage percentages
    if [ $P0_COVERAGE -lt 95 ]; then
      echo "P0 coverage below 95%"
      exit 1
    fi

Document Waivers Clearly

If proceeding with WAIVED:

Required:

## Waiver Documentation

**Waived By:** VP Engineering, Product Lead
**Date:** 2026-01-15
**Gate Type:** Release Gate v1.2

**Justification:**
Business critical to launch by Q1 for investor demo.
Performance concerns acceptable for initial user base.

**Conditions:**
- Set monitoring alerts for P99 > 300ms
- Plan optimization for v1.3 (due February 28)
- Monitor user feedback closely

**Accepted Risks:**
- 1% of users may experience 350ms latency
- Avatar upload feature incomplete
- Profile export deferred to next release

**Quantified Impact:**
- Affects <100 users at current scale
- Workaround exists (manual export)
- Monitoring will catch issues early

**Approvals:**
- VP Engineering: [Signature] Date: 2026-01-15
- Product Lead: [Signature] Date: 2026-01-15
- QA Lead: [Signature] Date: 2026-01-15

Common Issues

Too Many Gaps to Fix

Problem: Phase 1 shows 50 uncovered requirements.

Solution: Prioritize ruthlessly:

Fix all P0 gaps (critical path)
Fix high-risk P1 gaps
Accept low-risk P1 gaps with mitigation
Defer all P2/P3 gaps

Don’t try to fix everything - focus on what matters for release.

Can’t Find Test Coverage

Problem: Tests exist but TEA can’t map them to requirements.

Cause: Tests don’t reference requirements.

Solution: Add traceability comments:

test('should display profile', async ({ page }) => {
  // Covers: Requirement 1 - User can view profile
  // Acceptance criteria: Navigate to /profile, see name/email
  await page.goto('/profile');
  await expect(page.getByText('Test User')).toBeVisible();
});

Or use test IDs:

test('[REQ-1] should display profile', async ({ page }) => {
  // Test code...
});

Unclear What “FULL” vs “PARTIAL” Means

FULL ✅: All acceptance criteria tested

Requirement: User can edit profile
Acceptance criteria:
  - Can modify name ✅ Tested
  - Can modify email ✅ Tested
  - Can upload avatar ✅ Tested
  - Changes persist ✅ Tested
Result: FULL coverage

PARTIAL ⚠️: Some criteria tested, some not

Requirement: User can edit profile
Acceptance criteria:
  - Can modify name ✅ Tested
  - Can modify email ✅ Tested
  - Can upload avatar ❌ Not tested
  - Changes persist ✅ Tested
Result: PARTIAL coverage (3/4 criteria)

Gate Decision Unclear

Problem: Not sure if PASS or CONCERNS is appropriate.

Guideline:

Use PASS ✅ if:

All P0 requirements 100% covered
P1 requirements >90% covered
No critical issues
NFRs met

Use CONCERNS ⚠️ if:

P1 coverage 85-90% (close to threshold)
Minor quality issues (score 70-79)
NFRs have mitigation plans
Team agrees risk is acceptable

Use FAIL ❌ if:

P0 coverage <100% (critical path gaps)
P1 coverage <85%
Critical security/performance issues
No mitigation possible

When in doubt, use CONCERNS and document the risk.

How to Run Test Design - Provides requirements for traceability
How to Run Test Review - Quality scores feed gate
How to Run NFR Assessment - NFR status feeds gate

Understanding the Concepts

Risk-Based Testing - Why P0 vs P3 matters
TEA Overview - Gate decisions in context

Reference

Command: *trace - Full command reference
TEA Configuration - Config options

Generated with BMad Method - TEA (Test Architect)

How to Run Trace with TEA

How to Run Trace with TEA

When to Use This

Phase 1: Requirements Traceability

Phase 2: Quality Gate Decision

Prerequisites

Steps

1. Run the Trace Workflow

2. Specify Phase

Phase 1: Requirements Traceability

3. Provide Requirements Source

4. Specify Test Location

5. Specify Focus Areas (Optional)

6. Review Coverage Matrix

Traceability Matrix (traceability-matrix.md):

2. Add Avatar Upload Tests

Next Steps

Gate Decision Rules

Example CONCERNS Decision

Example FAIL Decision

What You Get

Phase 1: Traceability Matrix

Phase 2: Gate Decision

Usage Patterns

Greenfield Projects

Brownfield Projects

Tips

Run Phase 1 Frequently

Use Coverage Trends

Set Coverage Targets by Priority

Use Classification Strategically

Automate Gate Decisions

Document Waivers Clearly

Common Issues

Too Many Gaps to Fix

Can’t Find Test Coverage

Unclear What “FULL” vs “PARTIAL” Means

Gate Decision Unclear

Related Guides

Understanding the Concepts

Reference

Traceability Matrix (`traceability-matrix.md`):