Bulk delete of test steps (Zephyr)

[John Stockman]

Hi,

This is a question about bulk updating / deleting test steps held within tests in Jira / Zephyr. 

Background:

We created approx 700 placeholder test scripts with basic high level steps at the start of the project within Excel, which were then loaded into Jira with the zfj import tool. Each test was then linked to its associated story / requirement and placed into one or more cycles with associated spreadsheets / charts and whatnot for the project plan to be based around.

Problem:

The project has progressed and as stories are refined it was asked that the test steps are expanded. We used Excel for this again and a typical example is a placeholder of 10 steps has now evolved to a test script of 50 steps. 

With the new scripts held in Excel we need to load them in to Jira. As we had already linked the placeholders to cycles / stories etc in Jira (and had various charts / planning spreadsheets outside of Jira) we could not simply bulk delete and re-import the tests as this would be too time consuming and unravel previous work. 

The importer tool was used to add the new steps in to the existing steps - in my example this means a 10 step test is now a 60 step test. 

We hit a snag with the zfj importer and somehow it has done the import twice, so in my example I now have 110 steps, 60 of which are obsolete! This has applied to the ~700 tests in a similar way.

What is needed:

I need to find a way to bulk update or delete test steps from an individual test case. I have tried to delete steps manually, but using the cloud version to do this is very clunky and time consuming. It simply takes too long. 

Is there a way to do any of the following:

1) Bulk delete steps 1-10 and 61-110 (from my example), leaving the valid 50 steps

2) Bulk delete ALL steps from a list of (or single) test (I can then re-import)

I considered using the import tool to add the new scripts in as brand new tests, then update the old test to have a step 'pointing' at the new test ID.. but this would still need bulk deletion of the existing steps. 

Google search suggests this type of thing has been asked for multiple times over the years and doesn't exist - but I figured i'd ask the question in case things had changed.

I hope the above made sense! Thanks!

[Brian Walker]

Hi John,

I agree with @Brijesh Patel and I am following the same thing.

The tool which I am using it provides an option to replace all the steps with new step(s) so the duplicated steps will replace with new one. I am not sure about Z4J but you can check with Z4J support for similar solutions or other workarounds if possible.

Thanks

Brian.

[John Stockman]

Thanks Brian, can you tell me which tool you are using please? and is this a tool that links in to Zephyr? 

I am using the zfj-importer-utility-0.40.

[Brian Walker]

Hey,

I am using the QMetry for Jira

It's a test management app like Z4J and it has the import tool which will allow you to select the operation like Create, Append or Replace so based on your need you can choose appropriate one. Also, it won't link with zephyr but you can try it and think about migrating from Z4J to qmetry if possible.

[John Stockman]

Thanks Brian - We are unfortunately heavily invested in Zephyr as the project is now 2 years old, so migrating now wouldn't be possible. I will suggest we look at other options for future projects to my test manager as the number of issues we run into with Zephyr is stacking up! 

For now though it looks like I may be stuck with a mountain of test script management in a clunky tool :( bad times! I've done more searches and it looks like this functionality has been asked for repeatedly in the past and never addressed. 

Cheers! 

[Brijesh Patel]

Try to replace with previous steps with new steps via Import tool if possible.

[John Stockman]

Unfortunately from what I can tell, the importer tool I am using doesn't have that functionality.

I tell the tool where the spreadsheet is and then map the columns in to the required fields. There is one field that allows you to tell the tool where the test ID is entered, and using this will add those steps to the existing test ID. If this is left blank, the test is added as a new test ID.

The tool in use if the zfj-importer-utility-0.40.

[aromal]

Hello @John Stockman, did you find any solution? I am also looking for a solution. 

[sri sakthi]

Hi John,

Even I'm also looking for a solution. I wanted to update the existing test cases in Jira, but when tried through the importer, it actually added up to the existing steps. I want to re-write the test steps. there must be some way to edit the test steps in bulk but not able to find it.