Is JIRA a project management + test management tool?

Chakshu Jain

Hi All,

Our team is planning to get JIRA as the project management tool. Just wondering that what are the capabilities of JIRA? Is it just a project management tool or does it incorporate test management tool features as well (Like HPQC). If yes, why do we need a test management tool that should integrate with JIRA? If not, why do we call it a bug tracking and management tool? Your views are appreciated.

Thanks

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

It's an issue tracker at it's heart.  That lends it to project management, as a project is based on "a list of things we need to do to achieve the goal of the project goal".

You can make it do some levels of test tracking, but as an issue tracker generally expects issues to be raised, worked on and then done, it's not ideal as a test tracker on its own (I'd expect a test tracker to support "test plans" that can be re-used over and over).

There are a number of test management tools that integrate with JIRA to provide that sort of stuff, and several that are add-ons that add test management in so you don't have to have another tool to handle the tests.

The reason it's often called a bug tracking and management tool is because it's an issue tracker.  Bugs are raised as issues, and the lifecycle of raise/reproduce/fix/build-new-version (and much more complex processes of course) can all be handled in there.