Xray for Jira, an app edited by XpandIT, allows you to optimally organize your testing activities through structuring tests, test campaigns and requirements. Tests and test plans are a type of issues in Jira, so it’s easy to identify certain types of existing issues as requirements.
If you want to integrate your testing activities in Jira, Xray is the right tool for you – but you also need to couple this with best practices. For getting started on the right foot with Xray, here are three tips that will help you implement this solution.
1. Make sure your projects are well-organized
If you want to deploy Xray for Jira but are still hesitating between the right organizational scheme to go with, don’t stress; we’ll cover the differences between the implementations offered by XpandIT.
Xray for Jira doesn’t enforce a specific structure or organization between requirements, test cases and test plans, so it is easy to integrate your previous requirement management structure into Jira. To manage different projects, it is also possible to set-up Xray using different organizational schemes.
For example, we can add testing cases and execution campaign in an existing project (Option 1) with the requirements already in it, or manage the testing and the requirements in two different projects (Option 2).
While subtle, there are some differences between how the two projects are organized.
Separating requirements, test cases and plans involves managing the versions for each project individually. Imagine that you choose to create a project that will contain the requirements and bugs, and a second project that will contain the test cases and plans. When you create a version for your requirements, you’ll have to create this same version in the project that contains the plans. Xray gives you the ability to copy versions from one project to another, but you can’t synchronize the versions. You can automate this action with the help of a third-party app, but it will take some development.
There is also an impact on the user experience as well. When you create a bug from the test plan, the user will have to choose the targeted project. If everything was regrouped in the same project, this action would be automatic.
Finally, it would be necessary to navigate between the projects in order to generate different Xray reports. Requirements coverage reports will be accessible from the requirements project, and test plan reports will be available from the project containing the test plans.
In short, it is preferable to group the requirements, bugs, test cases and test plans within the same project whenever possible.
2. Create automatic links
For a given requirement, visualization is key during the test execution for a bug.
This can be easily done by enabling automatic link creation from the results of a test.
The following display represents bug (TFT-11), which was created after the failure of test TFT-2, from requirement TFT-10 during the test execution of TFT-7. It actually is simple if you can look at it:
To implement this, during Xray’s set-up you’ll need to check 3 options in the ” Global preferences” section. To access the preferences, go to Add-Ons > Xray > Global Preferences.
You can also go directly to the requirements to take a look at the associated bugs. Bellow a visual of the requirements TFT-10:
With the help of a third-party app, the creation of links can help you create advanced filters, including a list of bugs for a requirement.
3. Implement a display for visibility over the requirement coverage
The field displaying the requirement coverage within the issue is called “Requirement status.” This can be set-up to display the following:
- Requirement coverage for the most recent unpublished version
- Requirement coverage for the unpublished versions
- Requirement coverage for the assigned version in the fixed version field.
- Requirement coverage for the last tests execution update (without regard to related versions).
It’s recommended to select the option for which the Fixed Version field must be filled in.
This is often the best option when you don’t have the possibility to manage Jira versions, or if the version is still unpublished in Jira. You may have a lot of displayed values in this field, some of which are related to requirements coverage versions that aren’t relevant and could pollute the display.
It may be interesting to continue to display the requirements coverage for a published version, particularly for regression testing.
For this, you have to modify the Xray app settings. To access the settings, go to: Add-ons > Xray > Custom Field Preferences
Next step: Expand your Xray knowledge
Thanks to the above best practices, you can begin your test management in Jira with Xray. Yet we still have more tips to share with you!
