Requirements Traceability & Test Coverage using XRAY + JIRA
Requirements Traceability is about validating (and demonstrating to stakeholders) that your project is successful and has delivered what it set out to do. It applies to all delivery methods, particularly waterfall, as user expectations tend to shift over time.
XRAY for Jira is a leading Test Management tool that provides the structure to organise, plan, and report with accuracy on the progress of your testing and the readiness to deploy.
This presentation briefly outlines how to use the cloud-based version of this test management tool to undertake your own tests within a Jira project and build your own requirements traceability & test coverage reports.
We also show how you can display ‘real-time’ results of both test coverage and test traceability on your own management information reporting dashboard.
NB: The above commercial plug-in is available from the Atlassian Marketplace (which can be trialled for free for 30-days).
Testing Issue Types in Jira
When you enable XRAY for JIRA in JIRA – it will add its own standard set of issue types – as shown:
In the admin settings, you can also decide which of the existing Jira issue types within your current projects will be a “coverable entity” for performing tests against (Epics, Stories, Requirements, etc.). All these issue types will then be classed as “Requirements” with regards to the report.
You also decide what issue to use when raising a defect from inside the testing tool (default is the standard “Bug”).
In our case, we’ve got different issue types for specifying “functional” and “non-functional” requirements, which are our primary “testable” elements – as shown:
Requirements in Jira
Requirements can then be created directly in Jira or Imported from a spreadsheet.
In our example case – we have Twelve requirements (“Functional Requirement” tickets) created and included within an “Epic”, which is the primary container for our requirements.
Tests for each of the Requirements
Each of the Requirement issues should have at least one Test linked to it (the test does not need to be unique; there is a many-to-many relationship here).
These Test issue(s) will be shown within the Test Repository for the Jira project – as shown in the larger image below:
Tests issue(s) will show as “Linked Issues” in Jira (as shown in the smaller image below).
Test Coverage is shown for each Requirement
Whenever looking at the Requirement level – the requirement issue automatically gets a “Test Coverage” section added onto the ticket (whenever it gets a Test ticket associated with it).
The results for the tests for the specific requirement are displayed – as shown:
Test Coverage & Requirement Traceability
XRAY for JIRA includes a set of ‘ready made’ reports.
“Test Coverage” report is one of these options – as shown:
Traceability report is another one of these standard report options – as shown:
Bugs can be easily created whenever any Test fails
Other Standard Reports
A number of other standard reports are available within XRAY for JIRA – a number of examples are shown below:
XRAY for JIRA automatically adds its own gadgets, which allows you to build your own testing dashboards to exactly meet your reporting needs (for your QA teams or other management information).
As usual, gadget information can be linked to specific Jira project(s) or your own bespoke JQL saved filters.
Here’s some example of the gadgets based on some sample Test data – as shown:
Conclusions
Test management software tools are used to store information on how testing is to be done, plan testing activities, and report the status of quality assurance activities.
XRAY for JIRA is our recommended choice for providing test management software directly inside of JIRA.
Tests are easily created and linked to each of your Requirements.
Test Plans and Test Executions are easily used to report the latest results from each round of testing – where the statuses of test results are provided and integrated into the associated Test items.
XRAY includes several standard reports, including “test coverage” and “requirements traceability” reports.
You can also use XRAY gadgets to create Testing dashboards to meet the needs of your QA teams and management reports.
As Atlassian Partners – TribusIT can help to introduce or adapt your existing Jira setups to become the best solution for Test Management.
