Is Jira a Test Management Tool?

What is Jira? This is a very common question in the minds of people who are introduced to the tool or learn about it. To put it simply, Jira is a platform developed by Atlassian that was developed to serve as a bug tracking and project management tool. In other words, it is a tool that is only meant to help developers track bugs in a software product or application and in addition to that, the tool is also meant to help developing teams track projects and collaborate with other members of their team or even other teams working on the project, with ease.

Now, Jira is the most popular bug tracking tool across the globe today and almost every other software development team, including the Agile teams, can be found using Jira. Interestingly enough, software development teams are using Jira for test case management. So, is Jira a test management tool? Well, the answer is ‘No, talking about test case management tools, Jira is NOT one of them!’. So, what makes so many people use Jira for a purpose it was never designed for in the first place, instead of using dedicated test management tools like QARA Test and Katalon Studio?

The Benefits of Using Jira for Test Case Management

• Works well for manual test case execution.
• Allows users to create a single workflow for both, the developers and the QA teams.
• Allows users to create custom issue types, which is used to create “test cases” as an issue type.
• Users are familiar with the interface of Jira.

However, since it’s not a test case tool, Jira can create certain challenges that users face when using it for the purpose of managing test case executions.

Challenges of Using Jira for Test Case Management

• No provision for traceability reporting.
• Does not allow user to group executions and cycles.
• Does not support integration with frameworks other than the CI server.
• No in-built functionality to support test case management.
• Cannot be used for version control handling.
• No provision for repeated test case execution.

So, what is the solution? Well, there are two approaches to overcome the challenges of using Jira as a test management tool and these are as follows:

1] Use of Add-ons

There are add-ons that are internal integrations and can be installed within Jira in order to increase the test management capability of Jira. If you search for these add-ons on the Atlassian Marketplace, you’ll find add-ons of leading test automation tools. QARA Test Management for JIRA is one such add-on that brings the test management capabilities of QARA Test within the interface of Jira.

The major benefits of this approach include support for clubbing of groups and improved test case management within the interface of Jira without the need to switch to another tool

2] Use of Jira Test Management Tools

This approach works the other way round, and is all about adding the advantages of Jira to a test automation tool. A Jira test management tool is nothing but an automation testing tool with external Jira integration. QARA Test and Katalon Studio are good examples.

The major benefits of this approach include significant improvement in efficiency, added functionality, support for multiple test case executions and provision to share test cases across multiple projects.

Conclusion:

Jira is a very good example of how people can make efforts to work around a popular tool to perform functions that the tool was never intended for. However, for people who are way too familiar with Jira can now get a test management tool with Jira integration to get the best of both worlds.