What is the What-If functionality? #
The What-If functionality allows users to analyze the potential impact on technical debt and the number of detected issues if a ruleset is enabled.
This includes issues detected on an inactive configuration item, or in a commented block of code.
Why this matters #
Enabling or changing rules can significantly impact your technical debt, issue volume, and governance standards. Without visibility, these changes can introduce unexpected noise or disrupt existing workflows.
The What-if functionality allows you to safely simulate these changes before applying them, giving you full control over how new or ignored rules will affect your environment.
This helps organizations to:
- Avoid unexpected spikes in issues or technical debt
- Make informed governance decisions before enforcing rules
- Plan remediation efforts with clear visibility of impact
- Introduce new rules with confidence, minimizing disruption
Important #
- The “What if” functionality button is visible only to rules marked as “Ignored.”
- In cases where a new rule is introduced and consequently marked as “Ignored”, a Full Scan must be executed before verifying the functionality
Any issue of severity High, Medium or Low while detected in a commented line of code or any issue of severity High, Medium or Low while detected on an inactive configuration item
How to Access the Rulesets Tab to Verify the Impact of a Warning Ruleset Verification: #
- Log into the Quality Clouds Admin portal.
- Select the ‘Rulesets‘ tab.
- Choose your instance.
- Select the rule you would like to review.
- Click on ‘Edit’. 🖋️
- Click on ‘What-if I enable the rule‘.
Check the projection on data to see what would happen when the rule is enabled.
Understanding the results #
The overall issues increment displays, by default, the number of issues identified on the scan date.
If the What If functionality detects new potential issues, the overall issues increment will rise accordingly, reflecting changes in the issue count, percentage, and technical debt.
