Move over Zephyr, XRAY, TestRail... How to use JIRA itself as a test management tool
Tags: testing, testplan, jira, productivity
Published: 2021-07-30 12:08:18

Remember the days when ~~HP Quality Centre~~ ALM used to be the gold standard of test management... well, look at how the tides have changed. Reminds me of how Blockbuster 🎟️ was too late to compete with Netflix and now, they've gone bust. Makes you wonder why Microfocus bought the tool just a couple of years back when everyone is already moving into a more agile, less admin-like (robotic) logging of test cases. It doesn't help that its slow-performing and costs a leg and arm to license it every year 🤯.
In any case, that's not the point of this article (I know, I always gets side-tracked 🤦‍♂️).
My point is that **no one needs test management** anymore (sheepishly looking at my non-existent sponsors 🤪)! The tendency is teams treat the quantity of test cases as the success metrics for quality, which I beg to disagree! The number of test cases you have does not mean you will deliver a quality product. Imagine, having a single test case for login then another for making a payment - understandably, they don't have the same amount of weight. As the saying goes, the devil is in the detail. Sad truth is having a thousand of tests in a fancy test report always sell 😔!
While there is *movement* moving towards testing embedded as part of development process and reporting is done on the CI / automation stage, unfortunately, not all companies are there yet. Hence, some might still need to have a test management tool. However, instead of paying for a JIRA plug-in like Zephyr or XRAY, or an integration like qTest or TestRail, you can use JIRA itself. Less context-switching, less steps 🥂!
**Spoiler alert**: *You need to have JIRA admin rights to make this happen.*
Here's how with my "Marie Kondo"-inspired workflow:
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 8.47.33 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1qojz4fyv5jnuxrrekmp.png)
 
1. Go to ***Project settings > Issue types*** then create an issue type called **Test** (and/or sub-task called **Sub-test** if you would like it visible under the User Story)
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.32.00 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qtxyl4rtzpvcdjmzp466.png)

2. Go to ***Project settings > Fields > Custom fields*** then create a new custom field with field type **Text Field (multi-line)**called **Test Scenarios**
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.49.49 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/n9pes2051pmrz09h8jxz.png)
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.36.24 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/824zsl5a6x4cmrzl1wf7.png)

3. Go to ***Project settings > Field configurations*** then find the newly-created custom field. Click **Renderers** hyperlink then select **Wiki Style Renderer** to update
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.47.49 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vascza81ttsx3odd7urc.png)
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.47.56 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/eaxr5vhdhyzvxgvj2zes.png)

4. Click the horizontal ellipsis then select **Contexts and default value**
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.38.45 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/3pplybqoyatu2iww2rhm.png)

5. Under the **Default Value** section, click the **Edit Default Value** hyperlink
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.39.41 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/v02n5qd14y4x6a62ife3.png)
 
6. Enter the sample table below then hit **Set Default** to save
```
||Test scenario||Test data||Screenshot||Status||
|Scenario 1|Test data 1|<upload here>|Pass / Fail|
```
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.43.26 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/f6nj3zr7pyhia3j8pocz.png)

7. Go to ***Project settings > Workflows*** then create a workflow called **Test Workflow** and create a flow like below:
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.06.58 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b9559518rke8czhmdbis.png)
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.06.37 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0v58sswwibail43wt602.png)

8. Link the workflow, issue type, and custom field together by googling how to do this (*sorry, this part is something that would prolong my article unnecessarily so I'll leave it up to you to sort it out* 🤪)

You would have something like this where the tests are visible (and no multiple layers / steps needed outside the user story to see the statuses of your test scripts / cases)
![Screen Shot 2021-07-30 at 9.00.53 pm](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5n7s1qir0h3kt63sjxvs.png)

Note: You can do this (if you're still transitioning from waterfall to agile) or if you want to do hardcore "Agile" then just include them inside the User story's **"Acceptance criteria"** 😁