Overview of new test management tools in Jira

The importance of testing and QA to software development

Delivering the best quality of the software is crucial for any software project. That’s why software testing is so important: if there happen to be any bugs or errors, they can be identified early and fixed before the product enters the market. In times when software projects become more and more complex, it is more crucial than ever to have a smart process for managing all the testing activities. Why?

Well, it is a fact that improved software testing, when done with proper tools, will surely result in better software quality. In other words, the way you organize and manage testing is vital for the final outcome of your product or release. Test management is one of the most important parts of the software lifecycle - and for it to run smoothly, it requires building a test plan, writing the tests, planning the test activities and capturing the results. In order to make the whole process more efficient and manageable, one should use proper testing tools. Of course, every team has different needs and the best tool for you will depend on your testing process and how you track test results.

Bringing testing capabilities within Jira 

As many companies use Jira to organize and manage projects and tasks within the organization, they would probably choose tools that are integrated with Jira  - simply, for the sake of efficiency and user-friendliness. You don’t want to keep moving back and forth between various applications, right? It can be really annoying! That’s why we recommend using tools for test management inside Jira. Such a solution can have many advantages, for example, no need for new infrastructure or the ability to include test cases within the Sprint. Naturally, in this way, you can also support the existing Jira ecosystem and extend Jira functionalities. 

Luckily, there are a number of Jira integrated test case management apps available on the Atlassian Marketplace. And here is the news: there is much more than only Zephyr and Xray. We know that these two are very popular test management tools for Jira and many Jira admins choose from those two options only. However, they may not be the best options for everyone - for the simple reason that not every tool works for everyone. You should choose the one that will best match your QA process and its demands. And only you know the metrics that are relevant to you and which you want to track.

New test management apps 

When looking for the best test management app for you, you need to make sure that it provides the functionality you need, it can support the way you do testing and it is adaptable enough to handle your future needs. In this article we have selected 5 new test management tools that look really promising, Let’s take a look at them!

QAlity Plus - Test Management for Jira 

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The app by SolDevelo is supposed to keep your Jira issues and related Test Cases data together. It assures transparency in projects and removes the knowledge barrier between developers and software testers. The latter means easier collaboration and better project understanding - thanks to the ability to look at tasks from each other’s perspectives.

But above all, these are the enhanced features of QAlity Plus that are the most important. The app is aimed at making tests easy and intuitive. What does it mean in practice? Well, first of all, you can add and manage your test cases directly in the Jira issues. Test cases can be imported to your Jira instance using a CSV file. The process requires setting things like the delimiter of your CSV file or which CSV field should correspond to which Jira Issue field - but it’s worth it! It is also possible to export existing test cases to a CSV file. 

What’s probably the most useful in a test management tool like that is the possibility to link existing bugs and create new ones directly from the test execution page. It helps to save time, avoid context switching, and have better visibility into which parts of the testing system are the most error-prone. Additionally, it’s possible to assign users to specific test case execution to make working with the test case execution more transparent and make planning ahead easier.  In this way, you make sure that nothing is missed and you can avoid unnecessary work. 

AIO Tests - Test Management for Jira 

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Described as an intuitive Jira app that aims at simplifying and optimizing the quality assurance process. It covers the entire QA lifecycle with test cases, cycles, reports and automation. 

First of all, this app by Navarambh Software offers a simple interface that quickly gets you started, from intuitive test case creation to flexible organization in Folders & Sets. Overview Dashboard provides the overview of the project and activities on the first screen while AIO Tests enables easy test creation in one screen - one go and it allows linking the Jira requirements. Test case execution is organized within Test cycles: you can plan for the next release and track the progress at any step of the cycle.

When it comes to Test Automation, you can use AIO Tests REST APIs to manage executions, import automation results and get traceability. AIO Tests supports automated testing with AIO public APIs and integration with frameworks like JUnit and TestNG. Thanks to the integration with the Jenkins plugin, it provides yet another easy to use interface to report test results into AIO Tests for Jira - right after the automated tests have run. The plugin wraps up the AIO public APIs to import test results from TestNG or JUnit result XML files. 

AssertThat-BDD & Cucumber for Jira

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The app by AssertThat helps to track all test cases down to actual user stories and potential failures. It enables full end-to-end cucumber integration that makes it easier to write new features and scenarios, collaborate and assess quality in one place.

As built specifically for BDD (Behavior-driven development) , it is simple to use and contains no unnecessary features. It captures behaviours for a common understanding of user stories and the BDD editor includes gherkin syntax validation to reduce errors and bulk update tools for speed of use. 

There is no need for separate reporting tools as the Cucumber test results are imported back into Jira. With AssertThat, you can easily analyse failed tests, link defects, and identify trends in automated test results for highly effective test management. 

QaSpace - Test Management

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This test management tool by EPAM Systems provides a fast, and easy-to-use interface with specialized panels for each QA activity. 

In fact, it includes different views on the project tests, such as the Library view that augments mass test case writing the best; the Execute view that is best suited for test creation, organization and execution and the Report view which offers up-to-date statistics on the current status of testing, always available for monitoring the process.  All of these 3 views reflect the same "test documentation" structure. In order to organize the tests and simplify them, a hierarchical folder structure was introduced. 

The app also provides powerful filtering - all filters are available within one panel, so you can easily find the required test cases. The list of visible tests can be filtered by specific words, assignee, priority, status, bugs, labels, and requirements. 

TestRailLite - Test Management for Jira

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It is a complete web-based test case management tool that efficiently manages, tracks, and organizes the software testing process. Thanks to its intuitive web-based user interface, it is quite easy to create test cases, manage test runs and coordinate your entire testing process.

The important thing to mention is the fact that the app doesn’t force you to treat tests as Jira issues. Whether you do agile testing or something more ad hoc, simply plan and run your tests within the Jira issue detail view.  

TestRail Lite makes it easier to track and follow the status of individual tests, milestones and projects with dashboards and activity reports. You can get real-time insights into your testing progress and boost productivity with personalized to-do lists, filters and email notifications.

Additionally, the tool is easy to use out of the box. You have to add test cases from within your Jira issues and start testing in minutes. You can add results, report bugs, and view reports for test runs across all your Jira issues, stories and epics. 

Conclusion

The purpose of software testing is always the same: to ensure the final product does what it is supposed to do and that it does not do any unintended things. Good test management tools are indispensable when you want to keep track of test cases and test runs. We hope that our overview is useful and will help you to broaden your stand on available test tools in Jira. Despite the fact that Zephyr and Xray are very good choices themselves, it is good to know that they are not the only ones in the game!

 

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