For every applicable requirement, define what evidence would demonstrate the intended behaviour and whether the plan observes the relevant boundary and conditions. A test may need a checker; a coverage bin may need an assertion or model comparison. A requirement with no adequate evidence is a compliance gap.
Waivers and exclusions should identify the requirement/bin, reason, reachability or risk analysis, evidence reviewed and responsible approver. They make residual risk visible; they do not turn an unverified requirement into a verified one.
What to notice
A test name or coverage hit alone is not the obligation's checked result.
The repair loop creates new evidence; recording a waiver does not turn the missing result into PASS.
It re-enters at stimulus and independent checking, then produces new recorded evidence for review. Accepted risk remains a separate unverified disposition.
A small requirement-to-evidence matrix
Requirement / chosen contract | Stimulus | Checker | Evidence required before closure |
|---|---|---|---|
AXI stalled W retains VALID/payload | Hold WREADY low, then accept; vary payload and gap | Previous-sample retention predicate | Clean legal replay plus isolated changed/withdrawn-offer detection. |
B follows accepted AW and final W | W-first, AW-first, simultaneous; premature B offer | Saved prerequisite state before this edge | Legal variants pass; premature offer detected with BREADY=0. |
Same-port same-ID reads preserve association | Two queued ID 3 reads, ID 7 overlap, second port | Per-port per-ID FIFO and independent data oracle | Legal cross-ID/port returns pass; wrong head/port rejected. |
Chosen coordinated-reset cancellation policy | Reset with one pending read, then reuse its ID | Epoch-local outstanding state; orphan detection | Cancelled count recorded; no old response admitted after release. |
Not from coverage alone. Retain the checker verdicts, nonzero accepted-event counts, applicable configuration and source revision, negative-case sensitivity, reviewed limitations and actual execution evidence. Authored cases without a run remain pending.
Protocol coverage can cross applicable transaction types, burst shapes, ID relationships and ordering scenarios. State coverage records selected states/transitions. Error injection should cover supported and risk-relevant responses and recovery paths, with exclusions documented.
Closing 100% of a chosen coverage model means its included bins were sampled; it does not establish that each result was correct or that the model contains every relevant scenario.
Coverage exclude: document why a bin is unreachable (e.g., tied-off input).
Constrained-random: constraints define the legal scenario space.
Regression cadence is a project policy: run the appropriate compliance subset at a frequency that preserves feedback time, and run the signoff configuration before release.