Xray for Jira tutorial on test management, execution
Atlassian Jira is already a tool many organizations use to track defects and new features. The Xray plugin for Jira builds on those capabilities to help software QA teams organize and automate application testing and management.
Xray for Jira works for many types of tests, including simple unit tests, manual test plans and procedures that integrate with a CI/CD pipeline via Jenkins or Bamboo.
As we explain in this quick Xray for Jira tutorial, QA professionals can take advantage of the plugin in many ways.
Create your test plan
Start by adding the Xray plugin via the Atlassian Marketplace. Once the plugin is ready to use, select Create from the Jira taskbar. From this screen, you can create a variety of types of issues. Each object can be labeled, linked to other objects or shown on a Jira dashboard.
QA professionals will most likely work with these issues to track coverage and testing:
- Test. An individual item to be tested either manually or through a script.
- Test set. A list of associated tests, usually imported using a CSV or JSON
- Test plan. An order containing one or more Tests or Test Sets.
- Test execution. A single run of a test. A new test execution is created each time a test runs.
Let's create a Test plan, which QA professionals can use to easily associate Tests or Test sets with the resolution of a Defect, or add new features under an Epic. When you run tests manually, you can mark the status on the Test execution object. These tests can also link back to requirements in Jira to ensure traceability -- from requirements, to test, to release and which engineer or project manager owned each step.
The best use case for Xray for Jira is adding a suite of tests at scale to an application or product.