Strategy of using Jira with tools for automated testing

Question

I'd like to verify my idea of setting up test architecture in projects managed by Jira.

Jira itself does not provide tools for unit or functional testing, but it has different plugins to manage testing and some for managing automated testing, e.g. TestFLO Automation - can run autometed tests and save their results (JUnit format) as Jira issues.

So the sequence of steps to define test automation architecture in Jira would be as follows:

1. Define test automation frameworks/software which could be used with your product.
2. Check their integration with Jira with usage of Jira plugins.
3. Select sets testing frameworks/software -- Jira plugin that best suits your needs.

Is this strategy right? Or is there any other strategy?

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UPDATE (2018.05.04):

Actual sequence of steps was:

Precondition: We know that we should use Jira to track bugs & manage tasks

1. Define test-automation tools (we decided to use: testng + webdriver + maven + allure)
2. Then we had to select test management tool (Jira plugin or stand-alone app) which could be integrated with Jira & autotests. We chose testrail for some reasons, and use its API to integrate with autotest (pass results from autotests to testrail)

Answer 1

I don't think that orchestrating testing process from Jira is the best option.

Testing process should go hand-by-hand with the development and driven by Continuous Integration and Delivery so in the ideal world the process from developer's commit to publishing new release into production should be completely unattended and automated.

As a strong believer of KISS principle I tried to avoid any tools, plugins, 3rd-party applications and services as much as possible and used functionalities which come out-of-the-box with the infrastructure products.

In case of Jira - it provides REST API so you can create, read, update and delete any entities, like create issue if new test fails, leave a comment regarding issue is being reproducible on a new build, etc.

Answer 2

This is what I had implemented for one of my clients. Automation Framework: This was developed using QTP and HP Load Runner.

Test Management Tool: HP QC was used for test management, test case repository, Single Point of Reporting, Release management and Defect Management.

Integration between Jira and HP QC: There are several bridge apps/servers available but in our case we used Tasktop. You can find more details on all the tools in https://marketplace.atlassian.com. Also we integrated Bugzila

What was achieved: The tester was able to execute a test case i.e. trigger the automated test to run from QC. The actual script used to run on QTP systems and results were directly updated on QC on completion whether it had failed or passed. Even mails were triggered on completion. On failure the tester used to analyse the logs captured and stored and log a defect on QC. We had clearly defined filters and fields on QC and depending on which fields were chosen by the tester it used to trigger a task/issue creation on Jira And OR defect on Bugzila (depending on the nature of the bug or impacted component as we were dealing in a multi vendor environment, where different vendors and teams were responsible for testing, using different defect tracking tools). We had implemented multiway communication which could be triggered either from Jira, Bugzila or QC but at the end restricted it to trigger from QC only via testers and other activities were taken care manually.

Hope this will provide an idea and help you. All the best!

Answer 3

I am not 100% sure what you are trying to achieve, but I think you should have a look at Atlassian Bamboo as a continuous integration server as it integrations pretty good with Jira.

A ci-server should be able to work with any testing tools, I would not worry to much about what tools to pick or not. Select the ones that best suit your needs.

Bamboo can run all your automated tests and link artifacts within Jira issues. Because Bamboo integrates with Jira for each issue you can see what builds are successfull and which arent. Also you should be able to create Jira issues on failing builds by using the Jira API.

Answer 4

There is not just one automation strategy to perform automation testing. We can also use Jira with automation tools along with other automation methods. There are a few steps to follow in order to use Jira for the same purpose.

You can also check this link on Atlassian Jira official website to create, edit, and automate the rule in Jira - https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/create-and-edit-jira-automation-rules/.

I have provided a few details here: You can create a new rule and define when it should be triggered as below:

Step 1- In Jira settings, under Automation, create a new rule.

Step 2- Define the "When"

Step 3-Set it for "Manual trigger"

Step 4-Define the condition so that this rule can only be executed from the Test Plan issue

You can also set up manual trigger rules by selecting the Manual trigger when creating an automation rule:

Step 1- To trigger a manual rule, you can go to a Jira issue

Step 2- Select Rule executions (next to Automation)

Here are some strategies for using Jira with tools for automated testing:

1. Define test issues
2. Retrieve Jira test requirements
3. Report and manage defects
4. Link test cases to Jira issues
5. Create, manage, and run test cycles and sets
6. Establish and execute traceability
7. Use test metrics to analyze results