Easy test management tool integration in JIRA

Problem statement

Most of the testers who work in startups or mid-sized IT companies must have started with writing test cases in excel and then updating the “Status” column with Pass/Fail. Quite a memory to say. However, once the test suite starts expanding then maintaining the same becomes a hassle as one has to constantly switch between the sheets to find the test case which corresponds to a certain requirement. In such cases, a simple Test Case management tool can be of great help as it provides us with a simplified way to manage test cases and map requirements with the same. In this blog, I will talk about one such tool called TestRail by Gurock software.

Solution

Thanks to the boom in the startup culture in the nation, most of the startups now understand the value of simplified software solutions or tools which help their cause rather than banking on open-source solutions and are ready to spend on the same. Specifically talking about TestRail, the yearly cost that once has to bear is a nominal INR 30K for a cloud license with one user and it also comes with a 14-days free trial so technically 30 K for 13 months. You can also opt for the enterprise solution which will cost you considerably more though. However, if the purpose is to maintain a suite and map requirements with test cases then the single-user license works pretty efficiently.

Setup

In order to set up TestRail with your JIRA software, open your JIRA software, go to Apps > Find New Apps and type in ‘TestRail’ in the searchbox.

Post-installation you will be able to see it under Manage Apps as an installed app.

Alternatively, you can visit the official website for TestRail “https://www.gurock.com/testrail/” and subscribe to the license of your choice.

Now I will show you how to install a 14-day trial account which can then be extended into a permanent account after payment. Click on the green button at the bottom which says Try test Rail for Free.

The “Web Address” field is important here as it will be the address where your TestRail account will be hosted For eg:- in this case, the user will have to visit “https://testaddmyorg.testrail.io” to use TestRail. The other fields are for general user details. After this, you will be asked for a username and password and that’s it. You are ready to use TestRail. Here’s what the home page will look like.

Using TestRail with JIRA

Now that the setup is done, we can now map our test cases with our JIRA stories/tasks. To do this we need to do the following steps

1. Create a TestRail project corresponding to the module that we are testing
2. Create test cases directly to the JIRA task, OR
3. Create a test run and include already existing cases in the run.

Adding a test case under a TestRail project using a JIRA task

Once we have successfully done the setup, we can start adding test cases there, the options to do so are highlighted in the screenshot below.

1. If the user wants to add new test cases then they should select the Open TestRail: Cases
2. If the user wants to attach a set of existing cases then Open TestRail: Runs

On selecting Option1 the user will be prompted to add a test case and they will be navigated to the TestRail portal

On clicking on Add Test Case the test case template will open which will refer to the JIRA task ID for eg:- GQA-185 in this case

The added test case will then get linked to the task.

On selecting Option2 the user will be prompted to Add/Map a test run and they will be navigated to the TestRail portal.

Doing this will add a test run against the JIRA TASK SAP-1104 in my case, the user will have the option to assign it to a team member, and the option to include all or specific test cases using the last 2 radio buttons.

I Hope, this write helps any tester/PO etc to use this capability and set up TestRail for their project. For more in-depth info about the API Keys and OAuth tokens for the same, please visit the official website.