Testing activities as part of workflow or as stand alone task?

Question

Hi,

I am trying to come up with a workflow for my team, but I am not to sure how to integrate our tests. On one side I want to present the team with a clear workflow including the testing and deploying activities, so a user story can move from : To code > Coding > To Test > Testing > To deploy > Deployed (done).

Yet if I do this then I don't have a specific task "Test feature A" on my roadmap to track the work to be done by my QA.

User story: Feature A:

* Task: Update App
* Task: Update Server
* Task: Feature testing

I am not to sure how to reconciliate both approaches. Any tips or best practices regarding this?

Ste Wright · Answer

Awesome :)  - let us know how things go once setup!

Ste

GPY_ab360n · Answer

Thank you, that was super useful! :)

I do need to track test and deployment through various environment, I will go with testing has an issue type and simplify my workflow first and see how it goes :)

Ste Wright · Answer

Hi @GPY

I'd usually split these questions into two parts...

* Do I need to visualise testing separate to development?
* Do I need to have this highlighted in my workflow?

Do I need to visualise testing separate to development?

This depends on how your team works - for example...

* Do you have separate Testers to Developers?
* Is there a need to track testing through multiple environments?
* Is it manual testing, or automated?
* ...etc

I would at minimum have Testing as an Issue Type - either a Sub-task, or an Issue linked to Story - so you can track Pass/Fail, and field data like environment, etc.

But I would also consider either integrating to an existing test product - or, visualising tests better in Jira, using Apps like Zephyr Squad, Zephyr Scale, Xray Test Management, etc

Do I need to have this highlighted in my workflow?

How you test, and how they're visualised in Jira - then links back to the needs of a Story Workflow.

For example...

* Is In Progress sufficient to cover all progress of a Story, with a linked Test? This can be particularly useful if development, testing, and environment release are intertwined. You could use the connected data to show testing progress.
* If not, should the work be visualised by an In Testing status when testing is active?
* Should the workflow differ for Bugs - eg. an In Triage status when testers are checking a bug raised from production prior to a fix?
* Do we need more than one testing status if we don't track the testing in an Issue Type? Eg. In Testing, In QA, In UAT, In SIT, etc

There's no one answer here - you need to consider the other parameters within your environment, and in your team.

But these are the kinds of questions I'd be asking myself - starting with how testing is visualised in Jira, and how this should then relate to Story traceability from ideation through to release.

Let us know your thoughts :)

Ste