Introduction
Xray integrates with Agile to give you a flexible way of viewing, managing, and reporting some Xray Issue Types.
Agile boards (Figure 1) are an excellent way to visually keep track of the progress of a project's tasks.
Figure 1 - Agile
Usually, you use Agile boards to manage sprint-related Issues, such as User Stories, Tasks, and Defects.
You can extend the usage of Agile boards to also make them Testing-aware.
Agile boards do not replace other types of reports where more information may be consulted and analyzed.
Operations
Using Xray Issues in Agile Boards
Since Xray uses Jira Issue Types for most of its entities, in theory, you're able to include Issue Types in your boards. However, the reason for including them may be different for each one.
Having in mind that Tests and Preconditions are like Test case templates, including them in a board does not make sense unless you want to track the specification progress, in case you have a specific workflow implemented for that purpose. The same applies to Test Sets. Some may prefer to use one or more Task Issue(s) for dealing with the specification effort of Tests and/or Test Sets.
Including individual Test Runs would not be that useful. Since a Test can have multiple runs, your board would be over-populated. Moreover, Test Runs are not Issue Types, so they cannot be included in Agile boards.
Test Executions may be assigned to a sprint and may be tracked on a board. However, this may not scale if Continuous Integration (CI) is being used, due to the potential huge amount of Test Executions that may be created.
Sub-Test Executions are an excellent way to visually identify the associated Test Executions that validate a Requirement since they're created as Sub-Tasks for the Requirement Issue and will appear accordingly on the board. A limitation is that a Sub-Test Execution is a Sub-Task of only one Issue, in this case, a Requirement. Sometimes, this may not be applicable because it may be necessary to have Test Executions with Tests associated with multiple Requirements.
A Test Plan tracks a group of Tests, regardless of the number of Test Executions for a given version of the system under Testing. Test Plans may be used to group the Tests in the scope of a sprint and thus, consolidate the Test results.
In summary, you may extend Agile boards for Testing purposes to address two points:
- Specification and organization.
- Planning and execution.
Issue Types per Use Cases
| Issue Type | Use Case | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Test | Tracking the Test specification progress/lifecycle (e.g., a specific workflow is being monitored for reviewing purposes) | N/A |
| Precondition | Tracking the Test specification progress/lifecycle (e.g., a specific workflow is being monitored for reviewing purposes) | N/A |
| Test Set | Tracking the Test specification progress/lifecycle (e.g., a specific workflow is being monitored for reviewing purposes) | N/A |
| Test Execution | Tracking the daily execution-related tasks | Hard to scale, especially if CI is being adopted |
Sub-Test Execution | Tracking the execution of the related Tests for each Requirement | Hard to scale with multiple executions |
| Test Plan | Using scoped Test Plans (i.e., in the context of a sprint) quickly provides an overview of the progress of the execution of the Tests | Requires adding the Sprint field to the Test Plan |
In Jira Cloud, Requirement Status can not be displayed in an Agile Board due to technical limitations beyond Xray's responsibility.
Usage Scenarios
Here are possible scenarios for integrating Testing into your Agile boards. Feel free to adapt each one to your needs.
Quick View of Executions for Requirements from the Agile Board
Creating a Sub-Test Execution from the Requirement Issue will let you track related executions on the Agile Board, so you will see all the work that needs to be done to “finish” a Requirement, either by developers or Testers.
You can have a quick view of all Test Executions of a Requirement, directly from the Jira Agile board, as long as the executions are created as Sub-Test Execution Issues.
Test Plans as a Way to Consolidate Test Results
You may create one or more Test Plans and associate them with a Sprint.