A coverable issue (e.g., Story, requirement) may be covered by one or multiple Tests. In fact, the test coverage status of a given issue goes way further than the basic covered/not covered information; it takes into account your test results.

As soon as you start running your Tests, the individual test result may be one of many and it will be very specific to your use case.

To make your analysis even more complex, you may be using sub-requirements, for example, and executing related Tests.

Requirements may be validated directly or indirectly through related sub-requirements and associated Test cases.

How do all these factors contribute to the calculation of a coverage status? How is the status of a Test evaluated?

Let’s start by detailing the different possible values Test, Test Step and coverage statuses. Then, we’ll see how they’ll impact on the calculation of the coverage status of a issue in some specific version or Test Plan.

Overview of statuses

When talking about statuses, we may be talking about statuses of requirements, Tests, Test Runs and Test Steps.

The status (i.e., test coverage status) of a coverable issue depends on the status of its "related" Tests.

The status of a Test depends on the status of its "related" Test Runs, which in turn depend on the recorded Test Step statuses for each one of them.

Test status

The status of a Test tells you information about its current consolidated state (e.g. latest record result, if existent). Was it is executed? Successfully? In which version?

Thus, when speaking about the "status of a Test", we need to give it additional context (e.g. "In which version?") since it depends on "where" and how you want to analyze it.

Xray provides some built-in Test statuses (which can’t be modified nor deleted):

• TODO  – Test is pending execution; this is a non-final status;
• EXECUTING  – Test is being executed; this is a non-final status; at least one step is mapped to a non-final Test Run status 
• FAIL  – Test failed
• ABORTED  – Test was aborted
• PASS  – Test passed successfully
• Each of this status maps to a coverage status, accordingly with the following table.

The status (i.e., result) of a Test Run is an attribute of the Test Run (a “Test Run” is an instance of a Test and is not a Jira issue) and is the one taken into account to assess the coverage status of the coverable issue.

Managing Test Statuses

Creating new Test (Run) statuses may be done in the Global Settings: Test Statuses configuration section of Xray.

When creating/editing a Test status, we have to identify the Test Coverage Status to which we want this Test status to map.

One important attribute of a Test status is the “final” attribute. If Final Statuses have precedence over non-final flag is enabled, then Xray will give priority to final statuses when calculating the status of a Test. In other words, if you have a Test currently in a final status (e.g., PASS, FAIL) and you schedule a new Test Run for it, then this Test Run won't affect the calculation of the status of the Test.

You may use this if you prefer to take into account only the last final/complete recorded result and want to discard Test Runs that are in an intermediate status (e.g., EXECUTING, TODO).

Test Step status

The status of a Test Step indicates the result obtained for that step for some Test Run. 

Xray provides some built-in Test Step statuses (which can’t be modified nor deleted).

Managing Test Step Statuses

Creating new Test Step statuses may be done in the Global Settings: Test Step Statuses configuration section of Xray.

When creating/editing a Test Step status, we have to identify the Test status to which we want this step status to map.

Note that native Test Step statuses can’t be modified nor deleted.

Test Coverage status

The (coverage) status of a coverable issue tells you information about its current state, from a quality perspective. Is it covered with test cases? If so, has it been validated successfully? In which version?

Thus, when speaking about the "status of a requirement/Story", for example, we need to give it additional context (e.g., "In which version?") since it depends on "where" and how you want to analyze it.

In Xray, for a given coverable issue, considering the default settings, its coverage status may be:

• OK – issue has been successfully and fully validated; all the Tests associated with the issue are PASSED
• NOK – issue is unsuccessfully validated; at least one Test associated with the issue is FAILED
• NOTRUN – issue has not been validated completely; at least one Test associated with the issue  is TODO or ABORTED and there are no Tests with status FAILED
• UNKNOWN – issue is in unknown state; at least one Test associated with the issue is UNKNOWN and there are no Tests with status FAILED
• UNCOVERED – issue is not covered with tests; the issue has no Tests associated to it

It’s not possible to create custom Test Coverage statuses.

To calculate an issue coverage status for a specific system version, we “just” need to take into account the status of the related Tests for that same version. We’ll come back to this later on.

Calculation of the status for a given Test Run

The status of a given Test Run is an attribute that is often calculated automatically based on the respective recorded step statuses. You can also enforce a specific status for a Test Run, which in turn may implicitly enforce specific step statuses (e.g., setting a Test Run as "FAIL" can set all steps as "FAIL"). 

This calculation is made by following these rules:

1. Obtain the test status mapped to each reported test step status; this is important as the actual test step statuses are not directly compared
2. Compare all the the previously mapped test statuses together
   1. if any of these statuses (e.g., "PASS") is in turn mapped to the coverage status "OK", then the other status wins; if both are mapped to "OK" then the highest ranked wins
   2. if any of these statuses is "FAIL", then the Test Run status will be "FAIL"
   3. if any of these statuses is in turn mapped to the coverage status "NOK", then the Test Run status will be that one
   4. if any of theses statuses is final, then wins over non-final ones
   5. of these statuses, the status with the highest ranking wins

The order of the steps is irrelevant for the purpose of the overall Test Run status value.

Consequences:

• if any test step status is "FAIL" then the calculated status for the Test Run will be "FAIL"
• if any of the test steps "contributes  negatively" (i.e., is mapped to a Test status associated with the NOK coverage), then the status of Test Run will correspond to the mapped Test status of that step
• the Test Run will have status "PASS" if all the steps are marked as "PASS"
• the calculated status for the Test Run will only be "EXECUTING" if there is at least one step in "EXECUTING" or "TODO"  (or a similar custom test step status) and all other steps are in "PASS" or equivalent (i.e., associated to the "OK" coverage status)

Configuration Example 1

The following table provides some examples given the Test Step Statuses configuration shown above.

Configuration Example 2

Let's consider the following configuration.

Calculation of the status for a given Test

It is possible to calculate the status of a Test either by Version or Test Plan, in a specific Test Environment or globally, taking into account the results obtained for all Test Environments.

Analysis:

• By Version: For a given Test X, in order to calculate the coverage status for version V, we need to evaluate related Test Runs that were executed in that same version V. A special case is when you don't have versions or simply don't want to calculate the status based on a version (i.e., "No Version")
• By Test Plan: For a given Test X, in order to calculate the coverage status for Test Plan TP, we need to evaluate the related Tests Runs that were executed on Test Executions associated with Test Plan TP.
• On a specific Test Environment: For a given Test X, if a specific Environment is also chosen, then only Test Runs from Test Executions with this Environment will be considered. In case no Environment is specified, then all Test Executions are considered (more info here).

What affects the calculation:

• the flag "Final statuses have precedence over non-final statuses" shown in the calculation sections (enabled by default)
• the existence of Test Runs for different Test Environments, in case the analysis is made for "All Environments"

Calculate the status of some Test, in version V or Test Plan TP, for Test Environment TE

1. This takes into account Test Runs in version V (as a result of Test Executions in version V) or Test Runs in Test Plan TP (within Test Executions associated with Test Plan TP)
2. If Test Environment is chosen, then only Tests Runs on that Environment (e.g., TE) will be considered.
3. If "Final statuses have precedence over non-final statuses" is true, then:
   1. final Test Run statuses will have higher ranking than non-final ones
   2. only the latest Test Run is taken into account based on its "finished on" date  
4. If "Final statuses have precedence over non-final statuses" is false, then:
   1. only the latest Test Run is taken into account based on its "created" date (i.e. the creation date of the related Test Run entity - this happens when a Test is added to the Test Execution)

Calculate the status of some Test, in version V or Test Plan TP, for "All Environments"

1. calculate the Test status for each Test Environment, based on all the implicit Test Environments from the relevant Test Executions (i.e., Test Executions in version V or Test Executions associated with Test Plan TP)
2. calculate the joint value for the Test status
   1. PASS has lowest ranking (i.e. for the calculated to be PASS, all calculated statuses must be PASS in the different Test Environments)
   2. if one is FAIL, then the calculated value will be FAIL
   3. otherwise, use the ranking of Test statuses

Examples

The following table provides some examples given the Test Statuses configuration shown above in the Managing Test Statuses section.

Calculation of the coverage status for a given issue

It is possible to calculate the test coverage status of a coverable issue either by Version or Test Plan, in a specific Test Environment or globally, taking into account the results obtained for all Test Environments.

Analysis :

• By Version: For a given issue X, in order to calculate the coverage status for version V, we need to evaluate the related Tests statuses that were executed on that same version V.
• By Test Plan: For a given issue X, in order to calculate the coverage status for Test Plan TP, we need to evaluate the related Tests statuses that were executed on Test Executions associated with Test Plan TP.
• On a specific Test Environment: For a given Test X, if a specific Environment is also chosen, then only Test Runs from Test Executions with this Environment will be considered. In case no Environment is specified, then all Test Executions are considered (more info on Test Environments here).

The algorithm is similar to the overall calculation of the Test status, taking into account the results obtained for different Test Environments.

In other words, the status for each linked and "relevant" Test case is calculated and at the end, a joint calculation is done for a virtual Test case. The coverage status will correspond to the mapped value for the status that was calculated for this virtual Test.

The Tests that will be considered as covering the issue are not just the ones directly linked to the issue. In fact, they may either be direct ones or ones linked to "child" issues (e.g., sub-requirements). 

Algorithm :

1. Obtain the list of Tests that directly or indirectly through "child" issues (e.g., sub-requirements) cover the issue
   1. This depends on the Test Coverage Hierarchy-related settings, defined in Project Settings: Test Coverage
2. Calculate the Test status for all the Tests individually, in version V or Test Plan TP
   1. This takes into account Test Runs in version V (as a result of Test Executions in version V) or Test Runs in Test Plan TP (within Test Executions associated with Test Plan TP)
   2. If a specific Environment is also chosen, then only Test Runs from Test Executions with this Environment will be considered. In case no Environment is specified then all Test Executions are considered (more info on Test Environments here).
3. Calculate the "joint" status of all the previous Test statuses (i.e., by comparing together each Test status)
4. Calculate the coverage status mapped to the previous calculated Test status

What affects the calculation:

Indirectly, the flag "Final statuses have precedence over non-final statuses" (enabled by default)

The existence of Test Runs for different Test Environments, in case the analysis is made for "All Environments"

Test Coverage Hierarchy

Sometimes, you may have parent requirements and sub-requirements. In general, you may have parent issues and "child" issues, both of them being handled as coverable issues.

Xray is able to understand this hierarchical relation and takes that into account for the calculation of the coverage status of the parent issues.

When a issue has some "child" issues, then the calculated status for the parent issue depends not only on its status calculated per se but also on the status of each individual child.

The calculation follows the rules described in the following table.

From another perspective, you would obtain the same value for the calculation of the status of the parent issue if you consider that it is being covered by all the explicitly linked Tests and also the ones linked to the child issues.

Consequences :

The parent issue is OK if it is OK per se and the child issues are either UNCOVERED or also OK

The parent issue is NOK if it is NOK per se or if any of the child issues is NOK

The parent issue is only UNCOVERED if neither the parent requirement is covered per se nor the child issues are covered

Even if you are using the Test Coverage Hierarchy-related features, when you have tests that are directly linked to the parent issue, Xray assumes that you are validating the parent issue directly. Thus, it's irrelevant if the child issues are uncovered by tests or not.

Examples

The following table provides some examples given the Test Statuses configuration shown above in the Managing Test Statuses section.

Setup information for possible use cases

1. I want to skip some Tests and proceed as they didn't exist
   1. Create a "Test Step Status"  (e.g., "SKIP"), mapped to the Test Status "PASS"
2. I want to fail a Test Run but I don't want to mark the requirement as being NOT OK because this failure can be discarded
   1. Create a "Test Status" (e.g., "FAIL_DISCARD") , non-final and mapped to the coverage status "UNKNOWN"; setting the status as non-final will give priority to other Test Runs you may have for that Test, If “Final Statuses have precedence over non-final” flag is enabled
   2. Create a "Test Step Status" (e.g., "IRRELEVANT_FAIL") and map it to the Test Status created in the previous step
3. I want to always see, for a given Test, the status of Test based on the last run scheduled for it, no matter if it was completed (i.e. in a final status) or not
   1. Just uncheck the flag “Final Statuses have precedence over non-final”
4. I want to execute some steps, set them as failed or passed, but I don't want them to reflect immediately in the status of the Test Run
   1. Create custom, non-final, Test statuses for passing and failure (e.g., "MYPASS", "MYFAIL"), mapped to the OK and NOK coverage statuses, respectively
   2. Create your own custom Test Step statuses for passed and failure (e.g., "PASS_CONTINUE" and FAIL_CONTINUE"), mapped to the previously created Test statuses