Testing coordinated: How to link related bugs in Jira with Xray
In this day and age, our world lives and breathes technology. Software development is at the forefront for businesses that are aiming to exceed their goals and reach new expectations. Undoubtedly, software development is a complex project with many moving parts. Jira has made software developers’ and project managers’ lives a lot easier. Jira is a great software to plan, track, and manage your agile and software development projects. It includes a variety of customizable features and many add-ons.
Now, with a software development project comes new builds and new code development that require testing. So, where and how would users perform regression testing or unit testing? With a multifunctional add-on for Jira called Xray.
At Cervello, our project and QA teams have used Xray as our source of truth when it comes to testing. As we all know, testing is not easy, and manual testing is even more difficult. There are many variables that need to be taken into consideration to achieve successful manual testing.
During a round of testing, multiple steps and processes need to be tested. Xray has made the manual testing process easier. One issue we’ve seen is that when a tester issues a bug found during testing, there is a need to link similar defects and issues while going through the testing process. For example, Step 1 has a defect, and then in step 10, there is another defect with similar issues. Then, testers have to go back into Jira and manually link those two tickets, and they have to remember which two tickets they wanted to link. This is an example of a gap in the manual testing process.
The question now is how do testers link those two defects within Xray more efficiently? How can the functional role help improve developer efficiency?
One solution would be to add a comment on the failed steps that will help the tester and the developer quickly determine which two bug issues are related. The comment should include the ticket numbers that are related and any other relevant information that will help the developer resolve the issues.
Once the comment has been saved, the tester can add the related defect to the failed step.
This will link both issues directly to the test ticket and the test execution ticket.
Now, the developer will be able to find both bug tickets in several ways:
- The developer can navigate to one of the actual bug tickets created. From there, the developer will be able to see the other linked bug ticket and also be able to see the test execution.
The developer can navigate to the test execution where they’ll be able to see the detailed steps and any relevant information that could be used to resolve the issues.
2. The developer can navigate to the test execution. From there, the developer will see both linked bug tickets and the overall execution status.
3. The developer can navigate to the test ticket, where they will see both linked bug issues.
As you can see, there are multiple ways to find the bug issues. Developers can navigate to the issues in their preferred way. Each way will have links to bugs, test executions, and the test itself, which will help developers find any related information they need.
Linking similar bugs can increase overall efficiency in the testing process while also decreasing the number of hours worked by your team. Organizing similar bugs in such a way will also help the overall test case management. This will promote faster tracking of all issues, which will lead to faster test preparation and more modular test writing. Furthermore, the linked bug tickets will improve developer efficiency by giving them the ability to see all related issues in one place — making their jobs a bit easier.
About Cervello, a Kearney company
Cervello, a Kearney company is a data and analytics consulting firm and part of Kearney, a leading management consulting firm. We help our leading clients win by offering unique expertise in data and analytics, and in the challenges associated with connecting data. We focus on performance management, customer and supplier relationships, and data monetization and products, serving functions from sales to finance. We are a Salesforce partner and help our clients implement, customize, and optimize the platform into the best solution for their needs.
