We are already working on a revamp of the manual steps UI. This component will undergo a major facelift with the goal of providing a wider, more usable UI that will have the ability to edit all step-related fields at once, in a grid or column-based layout.

Editing, reading and navigating through Test steps will become much easier with this new UI.

Along with the Test steps UI revamp, we are also providing the ability to configure and specify new custom step fields for manual test cases that can complement the standard ones (Action/Step, Data, Expected Result). The standard custom fields can also be hidden if desired. All of this can be configured in the project settings.

We plan to add the ability to configure custom fields, that can be used to store additional information in test runs.

These custom fields are managed entirely by Xray (these are not Jira custom fields) and can be configured also in the project settings.

Test Run reports will also be updated to provide these custom fields as well.

The Xray Connector app for Bamboo will be updated in order to support new functionality and APIs already available in Xray. The Xray Connector will also support Xray cloud APIs and connectivity.

Ability to call an existing Test from the step of another Test and thus use tests as reusable building blocks for the composition of more complex testing scenarios.

The called test can be executed independently or be used as a step of a broader test (e.g. "login as the admin user").

Ability to define variables in the Test specification (e.g. the steps) that can be replaced by values inherited from different sources (a calling test for example). In that scenario, the called test is used as a parameterized template (e.g. "login as the specified user").

Ability to perform data-driven testing (i.e. execute the same test against multiple parameters, for different combinations of data).

Data-driven testing will be implemented using the foundations of test parameterization.

Data may be defined at multiple levels including:

• the test level (default values)
• the caller test
• the Test Plan
• the Test Execution

Data might also be imported from external sources (like CSV files).

Currently, the Test Plan is composed of a static list of Test cases. This means you must explicitly add the Tests to the Test Plan. If the Tests are all known and well defined when you start your Test Plan, this is ok. However, if you are working in an agile context where a Test Plan is created for a specific sprint, Tests will only be specified during the sprint and later added to the Test Plan. This process is not ideal because users might forget to add the Tests to the Test Plan.

Dynamic Test Plans can be defined with a JQL query which will be the source for Test cases. Considering the use case described above, we can define a JQL query that will get all Tests covering requirements of a specific sprint.

This feature will cover a common scenario where manual Test cases evolve to automated Tests. In this case, the user can either change/select the Test type to see different definitions (refer to the configuration option: Delete test definition when changing Test type) or create separate Test issues to cover all the natures for the Test.

With Test natures, we plan to make it more explicit that multiple Test definitions can coexist within the same Test case. Users will also be able to set the current definition so that Test Runs are always created using the "current" definition.

Ability to provide management for test types and thus provide additional, user-defined test types besides the standard ones (i.e. Manual, Cucumber, Generic).

Currently, it is possible to create new Test types using the "Test Type" custom field. However, any custom test type (except for some pre-determined names) will default to the Generic kind in Xray.

We plan to create a custom view where users can define new Test types and also the kind for each Test type. For instance, one can create a new Test type named "SpecFlow" and choose the "Gherkin" field. This means SpecFlow Tests would display a field with Gherkin syntax highlight. 

Most of Xray's native reports are tied to the project level. We plan to add multi-project support for these reports by allowing a saved filer with issues from multiple projects to be used as the report data source.

Right now, a Test Run contains the start and finish date which are set automatically, although users can also change the start date manually. However, users can not stop and start the execution as needed and the total time spent on the Test Run (finish - start) might not reflect the time spent by the user executing the Test.

We plan to provide a feature to allow users to pause and continue with the execution directly on the Test Run screen. 

Most Xray settings are now global settings. This means only Jira administrators can change these settings. Also, having only global settings means that any change will affect all projects in Jira. 

By moving some of the settings to the project level, each project/team can have a different configuration of Xray.