By adopting a methodology like SCRUM, you will divide work into small iterations (sprints) and your team will work together towards a defined goal (sprint goal). Collaboration is at the core of the team and having the visibility of work is essential to high-performance.

Testing should occur throughout the whole sprint as it takes part of the definition of done, so no user story is completed without having passed the tests. This way, the whole team has the visibility of tests and their progress. 


If you are part of a SCRUM based Team we recommend you to: 

  • create a Test Plan(s) per sprint
  • configure your existing Agile Boards (i.e. Scrum Board of active sprint) to show Test Plans and (Sub) Test Executions assigned to your Sprints and to show the coverage status on the covered issues

Here are the steps that you can follow: 



Review user stories with your team and create tests


The work is divided into user stories that usually represent the expected requirements. As a team, you should review and detail each user story and make sure that everyone understands what needs to be done. This naturally, includes testing. 

Testers are part of the team and should be involved during each Sprint Planning (where your team will review user stories for the next iteration). 

Now that you have a clear understanding of the user story you can create your Tests. To know how to create tests with Xray check the Writing Tests module, from the Tester course.


Tests, Pre-Conditions and Test Sets are typically reusable entities; thus, they probably should not belong to the scope of a release or of a sprint.



Select the Test Planning approach


After creating Tests, you should create the Test Plan. Depending on the approach that makes more sense to you, you can have a Test Plan per Sprint or more than one. 


ApproachRecommendationsExample
One Test Plan per Sprint
  • Include Test Plan issue inside the Sprint Scope
  • Track Test Plan Status as any issue (using workflows)
  • If you're working in the context of some release, include the release by setting its FixVersion/s field.

Test Plans for Regression Tests & for Non-Regression Tests
  • Create two tests Plans: one for regression tests and other for non-regression tests

Multiple Test Plans
  • Create multiple Test Plans to have insights about the testing progress of a certain subset of tests.
  • Divide the test per type, that can be managed by different users.
  • More complex approach, be aware of the overhead. 


We recommend you create a Test Plan per sprint, in order to track the overall progress for the sprint in an easier way. 

To know more on how to create Test Plans with Xray check the Planning Tests module from the Tester course.

Schedule Test Executions

You can schedule multiple Test Executions, from the Test Plan or directly from each Story as Sub-Test Executions.


If you choose to create Sub Test Executions from each story, you need to link them to the Test Plan, and it will give you:

  • ability to track the progress of the Test Execution in the Agile board, by seeing it in context with the parent Story
  • ability to count the time estimates of the Sub-Test Executions within the overall time estimate at the parent Story
  • ability to optionally restrict workflow transition on the parent requirement based on the workflow status of the related sub-tasks (e.g. allow transition of the Story to "closed" only if the Sub-Test Executions are also "closed")


It is not mandatory to use Sub-Test Executions, you can simply create a Test Execution from your Test Plan.

However, as mentioned above, they may provide some interesting benefits for some specific use cases, including the ability to track them as ordinary sub-tasks of Stories.


To know more on how to create Test Executions with Xray check the Executing Tests from the Tester course.


Track progress and get feedback

Using an Agile Scrum Board you can have immediate feedback on:

  • coverage status of the user stories (or other entities that you cover with tests); note that this status includes real-time feedback about the latest test results
  • progress of Test Plans (if you want, you may include Test Plans in the board)
  • progress of Test Executions (if you want, you may include Test Executions in the board)


Besides this, you can also track overall progress at the Test Plan Level or by using Xray Reports like:

  • Overall Coverage Report, to evaluate the current coverage status of the coverable entities (e.g. user stories)
  • Traceability Report, to quickly filter out relevant entities based on their coverage, check the runs of related Tests and reported defects
  • Test Executions Report and/or Test Plans Report, to see the results obtained on different environments, different revisions of the SUT, and to check the reported defects if they're still to be resolved or not. 


Learn more about Tracking Progress & Reporting in the Advanced Reporting module, coming next in this course.