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Specification Quality Checklist: OpenTelemetry Observability with Semantic Conventions

Purpose: Validate specification completeness and quality before proceeding to planning Created: 2026-01-04 Feature: spec.md Last Clarification Session: 2026-01-04 (5 questions answered)

Content Quality

  • No implementation details (languages, frameworks, APIs)
  • Focused on user value and business needs
  • Written for non-technical stakeholders
  • All mandatory sections completed

Requirement Completeness

  • No [NEEDS CLARIFICATION] markers remain
  • Requirements are testable and unambiguous
  • Success criteria are measurable
  • Success criteria are technology-agnostic (no implementation details)
  • All acceptance scenarios are defined
  • Edge cases are identified
  • Scope is clearly bounded
  • Dependencies and assumptions identified
  • Out of scope explicitly defined

Feature Readiness

  • All functional requirements have clear acceptance criteria
  • User scenarios cover primary flows
  • Feature meets measurable outcomes defined in Success Criteria
  • No implementation details leak into specification

Clarification Session Summary

Question Answer Section Updated
Buffer limits when exporters fail Bounded buffer (2048 spans/5MB max) with oldest-first drop Edge Cases, FR-019
Telemetry volume/scale support Medium scale (~100 req/min, ~10K spans/hour) SC-009
Exporter authentication methods Header-based auth only (API keys, bearer tokens via env vars) FR-020
Default trace sampling rate 100% (sample all traces by default) Assumptions
Explicit out of scope Dashboards, alerting, cost tracking (telemetry emission only) Out of Scope section

Notes

  • All checklist items pass validation
  • Spec is ready for implementation planning
  • Key scope decisions made:
  • Three exporters: OTLP, Prometheus, Azure Monitor
  • GenAI semantic conventions for AI-specific telemetry
  • Sensitive data control with opt-in content capture
  • Multi-exporter support as P3 priority
  • Bounded buffer with oldest-first drop policy
  • Medium scale target (~100 req/min)
  • Header-based auth only
  • 100% default sampling
  • Dashboards, alerting, cost tracking explicitly out of scope