Path Group War Room: Review Checklist

Review checklist

Review Checklist for Path Group War Room focuses on WNS per path group, endpoint owner assignment rate. The goal is to connect the observable symptom to timing mechanism, ownership, and regression risk.

• SDC revision and implemented clock/exception policy are named.

• Clock/reset and CDC assumptions are reviewed.

• Path groups, IO delays, and exception rationale are documented.

• MMMC scenario list maps back to signoff requirements.

• WNS/TNS artifact stored with corner/mode/view tags.

• Owners signed: timing closure lead, STA lead.

Sign-off ownership

OWNERSHIP MAP — Path Group War Room

artifact              owner
----------------      -----------------
timing report       timing closure lead
SDC/constraint      STA lead

Every WNS cluster needs a named owner before ECO.

STA deep dive

Debug hygiene separates senior STA leads from report readers.

Concept diagram

DEBUG ORDER

1. same tags?  2. constraints?  3. view?  4. real path?  5. ECO

Metric graph

ROOT CAUSE MIX (typical)

constraint bugs  ████████  35%
view mismatch    ██████    25%
real path        ██████    25%
methodology      ████      15%

Reports and artifacts

• run manifest

• SDC diff

• SPEF tag

• scenario isolation

Mini case study

Mystery regression: SPEF corner tag typo in run script — not a design bug.

Debug branches

• Manifest every run

• War room by path group

Senior review question

Ask: what corner/mode/view proves this topic is closed or failing?

Key takeaways

• State corner, mode, view, and database tag with every slack claim.

• Run setup and hold plus MMMC regression after every ECO.

Common pitfalls

• Comparing STA runs with different SPEF or SDC tags.

• Broad false_path to green-wash violations.

• Setup-only ECO without hold check.

Principal STA review addendum

War rooms assign failing path groups to owning teams (RTL, synth, PD, CTS) based on delay breakdown and path class.

Metric: WNS per path group, endpoint owner assignment rate