bmad-template/.trae/skills/bmad-testarch-nfr/steps-c/step-02-define-thresholds.md

---

name: ‘step-02-define-thresholds’ description: ‘Identify NFR categories and thresholds’ nextStepFile: ‘{skill-root}/steps-c/step-03-gather-evidence.md’

outputFile: ‘{test_artifacts}/nfr-assessment.md’

Step 2: Define NFR Categories & Thresholds

STEP GOAL

Establish the NFR categories to assess and the thresholds used for validation.

MANDATORY EXECUTION RULES

• 📖 Read the entire step file before acting
• ✅ Speak in {communication_language}
• 🚫 Never guess thresholds

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EXECUTION PROTOCOLS:

• 🎯 Follow the MANDATORY SEQUENCE exactly
• 💾 Record outputs before proceeding
• 📖 Load the next step only when instructed

CONTEXT BOUNDARIES:

• Available context: config, loaded artifacts, and knowledge fragments
• Focus: this step’s goal only
• Limits: do not execute future steps
• Dependencies: prior steps’ outputs (if any)

MANDATORY SEQUENCE

CRITICAL: Follow this sequence exactly. Do not skip, reorder, or improvise.

0. Check for Existing Test-Design NFR Plan

Before deriving thresholds from raw documents, check if a test-design output exists with NFR planning:

• Look for test-design-architecture.md, test-design-qa.md, or any test-design output in {test_artifacts}/ that contains an NFR section.
• If found, load it as the primary source of NFR categories and thresholds. Use those values directly; do not re-derive them from scratch.
• Only fall back to raw documents (tech-spec, PRD, story) for categories or thresholds that are still missing or marked UNKNOWN in the test-design output.
• If no test-design NFR plan exists, proceed with step 1 using raw documents.

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1. Select Categories

Use the ADR Quality Readiness Checklist (8 categories):

1. Testability & Automation
2. Test Data Strategy
3. Scalability & Availability
4. Disaster Recovery
5. Security
6. Monitorability/Debuggability/Manageability
7. QoS/QoE
8. Deployability

Add any custom_nfr_categories if provided.

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2. Define Thresholds

For each category, use thresholds from the test-design NFR plan (step 0) where available. For any remaining UNKNOWN or missing thresholds, extract from:

• tech-spec (primary)
• PRD (secondary)
• story (feature-specific)

If a threshold is still unknown after checking all sources, mark it UNKNOWN and plan to report CONCERNS.

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3. Confirm NFR Matrix

List each NFR category with its threshold or UNKNOWN status.

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4. Save Progress

Save this step’s accumulated work to {outputFile}.

• If {outputFile} does not exist (first save), create it using the workflow template (if available) with YAML frontmatter:

  ---
  stepsCompleted: ['step-02-define-thresholds']
  lastStep: 'step-02-define-thresholds'
  lastSaved: '{date}'
  ---

Then write this step’s output below the frontmatter.

• If {outputFile} already exists, update:
  • Add 'step-02-define-thresholds' to stepsCompleted array (only if not already present)
  • Set lastStep: 'step-02-define-thresholds'
  • Set lastSaved: '{date}'
  • Append this step’s output to the appropriate section of the document.

Load next step: {nextStepFile}

🚨 SYSTEM SUCCESS/FAILURE METRICS:

✅ SUCCESS:

• Step completed in full with required outputs

❌ SYSTEM FAILURE:

• Skipped sequence steps or missing outputs Master Rule: Skipping steps is FORBIDDEN.