One of the main priorities of modern Agile workflow is the ability for all professionals involved in SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) to work together on the project on the same “wave” – even in technical points those who do not have technical knowledge.
The second lead is automation. Together with the testing process automation, this one reduces the testing phase and the time to release the digital product to the market as a whole. At the same time, software quality does not suffer, which is no less important.
The testomat.io team aims to meet the needs of the modern software development and testing market. For this purpose, we have implemented in our TMS the possibility of its integration with one of the most popular project management software, Jira. Look at the features of the Jira workflow integrated with the test management system.
What Is Jira?
Jira is a popular tool that helps modern teams of all types manage work in Agile software development. In particular, it allows teams to track issues, manage projects, and automate workflows.
Jira is a product of the Atlassian family that originally was created as software for managing issues and bugs. But today it has evolved into a powerful tool that allows teams to perform development tasks, as well as to use it to work with test cases by QAs, including through synchronization with the test management system. Jira App is popular with many teams over the globe and industries that practice Agile methodology because of its multi-functionality.
The Key Jira cornerstones are:
- Issue – Jira issue is a single work item you track from creation to completion. An issue could be a bug, a user story, an epic, a to-do item for an Dev team, or an artifact that your BA team needs to create. People also name issues as requests, tickets, or tasks. But, our test management team prefer the issue name.
- Project – is a way to group issues by the common information and context that tie those issues together. You are able to configure issues associated with a project in a variety of ways, including assignee, visibility restrictions and applicable workflows.
- Boards – Jira board is a visual representation of your team’s workflow within a project. You can use multiple boards for flexible ways to view, manage, and report on work in progress on the same project. It is a Kanban Board view to track backlog items as they refine or a Sprint Board to show the Sprint Backlog for your current sprint.
Jira Software is not an open-source system, but at the same time offers its clients a free plan for a limited number of users, with strictly limited storage space and no access to additional support. You can find detailed information about the product on the developer’s official Jira website. The system also features an extensive community; you can chat with the system’s followers and ask your questions here.
Automation Testing with Jira
Thus, with Jira development team can plan project work, track the progress of tasks, release software, and generate reports on the work results.
Some QA teams use Jira as a standalone test management tool and encounter many problems because the project management software was not originally designed for testing processes.
Jira software developers state in the official documentation that you can use the Jira app for manual testing with global settings. That is, it does not have any specific settings like a testing tool. If we are talking about automated tests, then for creating test cases and test execution, it is necessary to integrate with the test management system.
One problem that arises during testing with Jira is the need to assign the “Done” status to all completed tests. In other words, you can’t rerun a sub-task inside Jira. For example, this disadvantage can be critical if you need to do regression testing. It also relates to some plugins designed especially to satisfy the needs of QA engineers.
Mode detail we consider the Jira problem and solution in the comparison article Test Cases in Jira vs Testomatio here on our blog for test engineers. Please, pay attention!
Benefits of integrating Jira and TMS to automate testing
If your team uses Jira in its software development, you can successfully use it for test case management as well. All you need to do is synchronize your project management system with testomat.io By doing this, you can:
- Work on a project entire team – the TMS interface is designed with all the features of the test process in mind, making it convenient for testers. At the same time, Devs, BAs and PMs can view test cases in Jira without switching between systems.
- Increase the efficiency of Jira testing – bidirectional TMS integration provides users with a detailed report and analytics of test results in real-time. This allows Agile teams to respond quickly to bug reporting, properly allocate time and resources, and improve overall efficiency.
- Reduce the release time of digital solutions – test automation itself is aimed at speeding up the release of software that will fully meet customer requirements. Integration with Jira allows you to simplify communication within the team and work on the project even faster.
Sync Jira and TMS
Many of our customers work with Jira as the leading project management tool. Considering its demand, we decided to allow users of our test management solution to use it fully for software testing.
Work on creating better software together with the developers; notify them in time about defects and control the elimination of bugs. Below is a list of what you need to do.
Getting Started Jira From Example
Our team has prepared several detailed guides for clients on how the TCMS works and its integration with popular test frameworks: Cucumber, Playwright, Protractor, Codeception, WebDriverIO, etc. Check all Demo projects for success starting through the link. Below we will focus on how to integrate Jira into our test management system and manage test cases in an environment familiar to all participants of SDLC.
Steps you need to follow to run the example on testomat.io test management:
#1 Install Advanced Jira plugin
To start working with Jira and TMS, you need to install the testomat.io Jira plugin. To do this, go to the Atlassian Marketplace and download the plugin by following a few simple steps:
- Log in to Jira.
- Click on the “Applications” drop-down list and select find the item.
- In the window that opens, click on Testomatio and select “Get App.”
- Wait until the installation is complete and close the window.
#2 Create Jira project
Add a new project by specifying details in custom fields. There are a few ways to find out the Jira project id. Simple to surf it on the Internet. One of them, pay attention to the project URL in project detail.
#2 Generate Jira API token
You need to get an API token. Getting ahead, you will know later. So, create your Jira API token. Follow through the link of Jira Docs to find out how to Manage API tokens for your Atlassian account
The integration of Jira and TCMS is two-way. This means that you can manage tests in the bug-tracking system and manage data of a project without leaving test management system. All changes made in a Jira project will automatically appear in the test management system. So, the next step is to bind both.
#3 Connecting to JIRA project
To bind tests to Jira issues, find on the project Dashboard and select the JIRA Integration menu. After then Configure Jira Integration.
You will see these fields when you enter. You have to fill them out carefully.
Now is the time to apply your API token, and the JIRA project id – which was successfully generated at the top by us. Project URL and your username account as well.
#4 Check your connection between test management and Jira
Just you have made all settings, will be good to check connection reliability with the button Test Connection. Pay attention to the green pop-up on the pic. Finally, you are free to evaluate all Jira test management advantages! Namely:
#5 Work with Advanced Jira Plugin Features:
- Track test results through the Jira plugin
- Add test cases or test suites and do changes inside
- Link requirements and test cases directly to Jira issues
- Link auto tests to JIRA (on the test level or test suite level)
- Run tests by non-tech teammates
- User stories coverage (requirement coverage)
- Jira BDD
- Work with branches in Jira
- Confluence integration
- Living docs
- Linking Jira tickets management
- Creating JIRA Issue for a Failed Test
- Check type, status, priority
- Create branches
- Manually execute test cases directly from Jira
- Track defects coverage
- Easily add defects for failed tests
- Notification
For complete information about the possibilities that Jira test management opens up to users, please check the special Jira Integration page on our website.
Further, we focus only on the most crucial points. It is functionality typically QA engineers are interested in the most and which will show the best side of our test management.
Linking test cases or test suites to JIRA
After you have connected the project, you can bind the test to a Jira issue. To do this, select project, click on Suite and select the failed test. In the drop-down menu, click Link to Issue. You can then link to an existing Issue or click create a new one.
To bind a test suite to the Jira issue, repeat the same steps in the needed Suite window.
Creating JIRA Issue for a Failed Run
Our users can also create Jira issues for failed test runs. To do this, go to the Runs menu, select a run with failed tests, click Link to Issue and select one of two options: create issue or link to an existing one.
Run tests directly from Jira
Start the testing process directly from the Jira app. The integration of the TMS and the bug tracking system allows all team members who work on a project to create, execute test cases, and automate them directly in Jira. This is very easy to do, so even non-technical people can handle the task.
Traceability and Test Coverage with test management
You can view test results on the Jira Results Board; it contains detailed information about the test type and test execution history, and you will also see a checklist of passed, failed, and skipped tests. On the other hand, the analytics allow you to pay attention to the Jira Issues with failed tests and estimate the percentage of test automation in each User Story.
Jira statistic metric
Get access to reports and in-depth analytics
As mentioned above, the integration of Jira and testomat.io is two-way, so you can also get information about tests within a specific User Story in the TMS. To do this, use the Jira Statistics Widget function and examine the statistics of the running tests, including their status (passed, failed, or skipped).
Running Test On CI\CD from Jira
Our TMS users can run CI\CD tests directly from Jira for quality assurance. This is possible thanks to seamless integration with popular tools, including GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Bamboo, etc.
This is important for teams practicing agile development because it allows them to detect errors early in the development process and thus save valuable time and customer resources.
Comparison table: TestFlo VS Xray VS Testomatio
| TestFlo | Xray | Testomatio | |
| Traceability between requirements | Full traceability from requirement to defects | A dedicated Traceability Report shows the requirements traceability through tests, test runs and defects | Receive coverage reports for requirements, linked to test cases, and defects by using the advanced Jira plugin directly from Jira |
| Linking to test cases | The Link with Requirement operation allows linking requirements with the given Test Case | Link Epic to test cases and user stories if it is configured in the Xray (project) settings –> test coverage | It is possible to link your requirements to test cases within the system and manage them in testomat.io |
| Visibility of the QA process | It enables visibility into the testing process | The project team has clear visibility of the QA process | QA process is completely visible and transparent for all teammates (Dev, PM, BA) |
| Living docs | no feature | no feature | There are Living docs, technical documentation, which in human-readable language describes the operation of each function |
| Confluence integration | You can use TestFLO gadgets in Confluence. To do this, you must register the gadgets from an existing Jira instance | Xray allows you to create Xray issues from Confluence pages | You can use integration with Confluence to document knowledge |
| Ability to run tests from Jira | supports | no support | supports |
| Automated Tests support |
The installation of additional paid TestFLO automation for Test Execution plugin is required | Test automation support is included in Xray add-on | Supports manual and automated testing |
Have you experienced all the disadvantages of using Jira as a dedicated test management tool but are not ready to give it up? Consider the additional possibilities offered by integrating the bug-tracking system and testomat.io. You can create test cases, get detailed reports and analytics, and run tests; all in one tool.
We hope that you will find the extensive integration capabilities of our TMS and this manual useful. Let us know about your experiences with test management for Jira. The content also is available also in video format if you are convenient reproduce the steps by watching 👀
