Helen detector
Execution Context Gap detector
The Execution Context Gap detector finds active user-facing stories that lack the minimum demand context for implementation: an active persona and an active problem.
- Method
- Deterministic demand-link traversal
- Implementation policy
- Blocking
What it catches
Helen follows explicit SERVES and ADDRESSES relationships from each active story. The story can inherit those links from its requirement or project declaration point.
A finding appears when no active persona, no active problem, or both are reachable. Draft, closed, deprioritized, archived, and infrastructure work are outside this check.
Evidence Helen records
The finding groups affected stories at the narrowest shared requirement or project. It lists each story, missing context, searched sources, inherited links, and how many stories are already in progress or review.
Grouping keeps the repair at the declaration point while retaining exact evidence for every affected story.
How to reconcile it
Link the requirement or project to the active persona and problem it serves. If the work is infrastructure, model it as a ticket instead of inventing customer demand.
Detector boundary
It evaluates user-facing stories, not infrastructure tickets, and searches a bounded inheritance chain.
Research basis
Gotel, O. C. Z., & Finkelstein, A. C. W. (1994). An analysis of the requirements traceability problem. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Requirements Engineering, 94–101.