Understanding Jira Testing Simplified 101

Organizations have adopted the agile development phenomenon to quickly build software applications while optimizing resources and managing tasks effectively. The Agile Project Development Methodology is most popular among IT teams because it emphasizes continuous planning, testing, and integration in one place. In an agile environment, QA professionals or software testers perform a variety of testing processes to ensure whether an application is bug-free and errorless. Since Jira offers built-in features to support agile development, it is popular among organizations for end-to-end Project development and Jira Testing. 

In this article, you will learn about the Jira Testing process, how to execute, configure test cases, and test results in Jira. 

Table of Contents

• What is JIRA?
• What is the Testing Process?
• How to execute Test Cases in Jira Testing Process: 8 Easy Steps
  • Step 1: Customize your Jira Issue Type 
  • Step 2: Adding Custom Fields
  • Step 3: Creating Custom Screen 
  • Step 4: Creating a Screen Schema
  • Step 5: Creating Issue Type Screen Schema
  • Step 6: Associating the Configuration to your Jira Project
  • Step 7: Adding the Test Case Issue Type 
  • Step 8: Creating Test Cases
• Configuration to accept test results for the test cases 
  • Custom Issue Types
  • Creating a Screen for the Result
  • Creating a Screen Schema for the Result 
  • Configuring the Issue Type Screen Scheme
  • Adding a Test Case Result
• Conclusion 

What is Jira?

Jira is a Project Management Software developed by an Australian company called Atlassian. It allows teams to track and manage their projects throughout the entire lifecycle seamlessly. Jira is highly customizable and can be altered or tailored to fit any Project Workflow. It is primarily used by development and testing teams to build custom software applications effectively.

What is the Testing Process? 

Every Application Development includes the process of testing to confirm whether the application or software is defect-free. In the testing process, a Quality Assurance (QA) specialist provides feedback for new applications or features created by the developers. They can also anticipate bugs that are about to happen and warn the development team of the potential bugs at the right time. This avoids the occurrence of software errors and ensures an excellent user experience for the customers or end-users. The typical software testing process always includes five steps – Planning and Control, Analysis and Design, Implementation and Execution, Evaluating exit criteria and Reporting, and Test Closure activities. 

Prerequisites

• Basic Understanding of the Agile Methodology
• An active Jira account.

How to execute Test Cases in Jira Testing Process: 8 Easy Steps

Testing is the most critical phase in the application development lifecycle that points out the defects/errors made during the development phase. To solve those errors and make a bug-free application, testers are involved in evaluating the software under various expected and unexpected conditions. Those anticipated conditions are written in the form of test cases. Test cases are the different test scenarios written by the QA Specialists/Testers to determine whether the software performs as expected, satisfies related standards and guidelines to meet the customer requirements. 

If any bugs are detected during the testing phase, the software is reverted to the development team to fix the issues so that customers/users don’t face any glitches or errors while using the application. The Jira Testing process can be implemented by using Jira as a standalone tool for writing and managing test cases within the Project Environment. Testers/QA teams can use the Jira Issue Type and Sub-Tasks to store the test cases and test results, respectively. 

The below steps guide you on how to execute the Jira Testing process and determine test results on Jira in a step-by-step manner.

• Step 1: Customize your Jira Issue Type 
• Step 2: Adding Custom Fields
• Step 3: Creating Custom Screen 
• Step 4: Creating a Screen Schema
• Step 5: Creating Issue Type Screen Schema
• Step 6: Associating the Configuration to your Jira Project
• Step 7: Adding the Test Case Issue Type 
• Step 8: Creating Test Cases

Step 1: Customize your Jira Issue Type 

To start your Jira Testing journey, follow these steps to customise your Jira Issue Type:

• Step 1: In the Jira Testing Process, you can use test cases as issues. For that, you need to add a new issue type to your Jira account. 
• Step 2: In the main menu of Jira software, navigate to Settings and then select Issues.
• Step 3: Now, click on the Issue Types option. 
• Step 4: In that, click on the Add Issue Type option available on the top right corner and create the new issue type by providing the name and type of issue. Then, click on the Add button. Now, your issue is added to your Jira account.

Step 2: Adding Custom Fields 

This feature in the Jira Testing Process allows users to define what details their test cases must have.

• Step 1: In the main menu, go to Settings > Issues > Custom Fields. 
• Step 2: Click on the Add Custom Fields option present on the top right corner. 
• Step 3: Now, Select a Field Type Window will pop up on your screen displaying several fields. You can choose any one of the fields to add your previously created test cases.
• Step 4: Select the data type of the field and give it a relevant name. For instance, let’s consider creating a custom field with the name and field type mentioned below.
  • Name: Test case steps.
  • Field type: Text field, multiline.
  • Name: Test case expected results.
  • Field type: Text field, multiline. 

Step 3: Creating Custom Screen 

The custom screens are created to add the above-created fields to have Jira Testing specific transitions and assign their respective fields. Follow the below Jira Testing steps to create a Jira custom screen:

• Step 1: Go to Settings > Issues > Screens in the main menu and click on the add screen option. 
• Step 2: Now, create a new screen by giving a relevant name for the screen. In this case, the name of the screen is “Test case screen.”
• Step 3: Once the screen is created, you will be redirected to the page where you can add the above-created fields to the screen. Using the dropdown menu option, add the fields such as “Test case steps” and “Test case expected result,”. 

Step 4: Creating a Screen Schema 

In this step, you can create a new Jira Screen Schema and associate it with the screen you created in the previous Jira Testing step. For creating a screen schema follow the easy steps given below:

• Step 1: Go to Settings > Issues > Screen schemes and then click on the Add Screen Scheme. 
• Step 2: An Add screen scheme will pop up on your screen where you can create the new scheme by filling in the name, description, and default screen options. After this Jira Testing step, you will see the screen as shown below.

• Step 3: Now, click on the Edit option to see the list of screens used for issue operations, as shown below.
• Step 4: You can switch between the screens from the drop-down menu and click on the Update button to save your changes.

Step 5: Creating Issue Type Screen Schema

For creating an issue type screen schema in the Jira Testing Process, follow these simple steps: 

• Step 1: Go to Settings > Issues > Issue Type Screen Schema and click on the Add issue type screen schema option.
• Step 2: Now, in the Add Issue Type Screen Schema Window fill the values for name, description, and screen schema. When you are done, click on the Add button to finish creating the Issue Type Screen Schema. 

After this Jira Testing step, you have to configure it with the specific custom issue types you created in step one. For that, you should already be on the relevant page, as shown in the below image.

• Step 3: Click on the “Associate an issue type with the screen scheme” option present on the top right corner and create an entry using the following values as shown in the image below. Click on the Add button when you are done with this Jira Testing step.

Step 6: Associating the Configuration to your Jira Project

For linking the previously created test cases in the Jira Testing Process to the Jira Project, follow these steps:

• Step1: Go to the main overview page of the Project, where you have initially created your test cases. Then, select Project Settings and choose Screens.
• Step 2: On the top right corner of the page, click on the Actions button and choose a different scheme. From the following options displayed in the dropdown, select the appropriate screen scheme that suits your Project.
• Step 3: Click on the Associate button to save your changes.

Step 7: Adding the Test Case Issue Type 

• Step 1: Go to the Main Menu under the global Settings, navigate to Issue type schemes, and click on the Edit link for the Project you are using.
• Step 2: From the Available Issue Types Box, drag the test case issue type to the current scheme box and click on the Save button at the bottom to save your changes.

Note: You can also remove some issue types if they are not needed but make sure you don’t remove subtask types as you will configure it to record the results against your test cases.

In the issue types box, you should have a test case and sub-task types for your Project.

Step 8: Creating Test Cases 

• Step 1: In the above Jira Testing steps, you have configured Jira to handle test cases. If you view your Project and choose to create a new issue of the test case type, you will be prompted to enter the summary field. 
• Step 2: In the summary field, you can give the title of the test case or test case ID, or text case reference number. Then, you can also create a few test cases before moving forward in the Jira Testing Process.  

Configuration to Accept Test Results for the Test Cases 

After creating test cases for Jira Testing, you have to execute and assign them the status or result of whether the test case is passed, failed, or skipped. For doing this, you can use a sub-task feature that allows you to add multiple results and view them all in a single list. 

To perform the above-stated Jira Testing process, you have to configure the following things:

• Custom Issue Types
• Creating a Screen for the Result
• Creating a Screen Schema for the Result 
• Configuring the Issue Type Screen Scheme
• Adding a Test Case Result

A) Custom Issue Types

    To record the results for your Jira Testing process, you need to create a custom field. For that,

• Step 1: Go to Settings > Issues > Custom Field under the main menu and then click on the Add Custom Field option and add the following fields. 
  • Name: Test case result. 
  • Field type: Radio button. 
  • Field option: Pass, Fail, Skip.
  • Name: Test case actual result
  • Field type: Text field, multiline.
  • Field option: Pass, Fail, Skips.
• Step 2: Click on the Add button when you are done.

B) Creating a Screen for the Result

To designate test case results as a sub-task for your Jira Testing, you have to create a new screen. For that follow these simple steps:

• Step 1: Under the main menu, go to Settings > Issue > Screen, click on the Add Screen option and name it as “Test results screen,” and create an entry. 
• Step 2: Once both the steps are performed, you should add a summary, test case result, and test case actual result under the field tab.

C) Creating a Screen Schema for the Result 

As performed for the test case before, you also have to create a screen schema for the Jira Testing result. For that follow these steps:

• Step 1: Go to Settings > Issue > Screen schemes under the main menu and choose Add screen scheme option. Now, create a screen scheme with the values as: 
  • Name: Test reset scheme. 
  • Default screen: Test result screen. 
• Step 2: Click on the Add button when you are done.

D) Configuring the Issue Type Screen Scheme

In the final Jira Testing configuration step, you should link the newly created scheme to the Jira subtask. For linking them follow these easy steps:

• Step 1: Go to Settings > Issues > Issues type screen scheme and click on the “configure” option next to the existing scheme that you created already, which is named as “Test case screen scheme.”
• Step 2: Then, click on the “Associate an issue type with a screen scheme” option and create an entry using the following values, 
  • Issue types: Sub-task.
  • Default screen: Test result scheme.

E) Adding a Test Case Result

As all the configuration part is completed in the previous Jira Testing steps, you are now ready to add results to your test cases.

• Step 1: Go to your Project workspace, click on the Open Issues option, view one of your existing test cases, and select the three dot option to open a dropdown menu. 
• Step 2: Now, click on the Create Subtasks option.
• Step 3: In the Create Subtask Window, you can enter that result. You can use the suggested following fields:

• Summary: It can be a reference ID, release date, release number, or test run name along with the result. The summary parameters should always be given along with the result to filter all your test results later. 
• Test case result: You can use the radio button to assign/mark the text case result as pass, fail, skip, or none.
• Test case actual result: If the expected result has not occurred or if the actual result differs from the desired result, you can use this box to provide further information.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned about how to perform the Jira Testing process. However, many companies prefer automated testing nowadays. There are many tools out there to perform automated testing in the most efficient and automated way. You can keep this Jira testing process as a base and later explore the other prominent automated testing tools.  

After you complete the Jira Testing process, you can move towards the deployment of your application. As your business grows, massive amounts of data start generating associated with your projects, employees, clients, products, and services. Integrating this Jira data with all the applications across various departments for Marketing, Accounting, Human Resources, Customer Relationship Management, etc. can allow you to harness deeper insights into your business performance. To efficiently handle this tremendous volume of data you would require to invest a section of your engineering bandwidth to Integrate, Clean, Transform and Load your data into your Data Warehouse for further business analysis. All of this can be comfortably automated by a Cloud-Based ETL tool like Hevo Data.  

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Share with us your experience of learning about the Jira Testing Process. Let us know in the comments section below!