Hands-On Test Management with Jira: End-to-end test management with Zephyr, synapseRT, and Jenkins in Jira

Hands-On Test Management with Jira

End-to-end test management with Zephyr, synapseRT, and Jenkins in Jira 

Afsana Atar

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Hands-On Test Management with Jira

Copyright © 2019 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Commissioning Editor: Kunal Chaudhari

Acquisition Editor: Denim Pinto

Content Development Editor: Ruvika Rao

Technical Editor: Sabaah Navlekar

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Project Coordinator: Vaidehi Sawant

Proofreader: Safis Editing

Indexer: Manju Arasan

Graphics: Alishon Mendonsa

Production Coordinator: Tom Scaria

First published: February 2019

Production reference: 1150219

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78995-452-4

www.packtpub.com

To every software project team that wanted to streamline their processes but did not know how to start...

mapt.io

Mapt is an online digital library that gives you full access to over 5,000 books and videos, as well as industry leading tools to help you plan your personal development and advance your career. For more information, please visit our website.

Why subscribe?

Spend less time learning and more time coding with practical eBooks and Videos from over 4,000 industry professionals

Improve your learning with Skill Plans built especially for you

Get a free eBook or video every month

Mapt is fully searchable

Copy and paste, print, and bookmark content

Packt.com

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.packt.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at [email protected] for more details.

At www.packt.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters, and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks. 

Contributors

About the author

Afsana Atar is an accomplished test engineer with a decade’s experience in software testing. She extends her thought leadership to teams in various domains, from digital advertising, education, and healthcare, to the financial sector, insurance, and trading. Previously, she worked with Google, IBM, the Principal Financial Group, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and is presently working for Susquehanna International Group. She is a Certified Scrum Master, an Agile Scrum practitioner, and is also part of the Scrum Alliance community. She has managed and worked on projects worth over $1M as a QA engineer to a QA manager. She believes in sharing her experiences with the testing community to help foster learning and innovation.

About the reviewer

Varun Pillai is an accomplished technical manager, a seasoned software engineer, and a data scientist with over 10 years' experience in managing multicultural project teams making end-to-end deliveries in SDLC and the Agile-Scrum process for advertising, banking, and insurance companies. He has worked with various MNCs, such as HSBC and the Principal Financial Group. He is currently working with the advertising unit at AlticeUSA.

He is an avid technologist and is always looking to experiment with the next big technology stack for data science. In addition to his work, he also contributes to open source projects and offers consultancy services to start-ups in relation to their technology stacks and business processes.

Packt is searching for authors like you

If you're interested in becoming an author for Packt, please visit authors.packtpub.com and apply today. We have worked with thousands of developers and tech professionals, just like you, to help them share their insight with the global tech community. You can make a general application, apply for a specific hot topic that we are recruiting an author for, or submit your own idea.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright and Credits

Hands-On Test Management with Jira

Dedication

About Packt

Why subscribe?

Packt.com

Contributors

About the author

About the reviewer

Packt is searching for authors like you

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Download the color images

Conventions used

Get in touch

Reviews

Section 1: Introduction to Software Quality Assurance

An Overview of Software Quality Assurance

What is quality?

Why should you care about quality?

Who is responsible for quality?

How do we ensure quality?

Software testing thought process

Quality Management Systems

ISO 9000 series

CMMI

Maturity levels

Software Development Life Cycle versus Software Testing Life Cycle

SDLC

STLC

Types of testing

Preparing test data and managing test artifacts

Managing test artifacts

Summary

Section 2: Jira Environment - An Overview

Getting Started with Jira

What is Jira?

Organizing projects with Jira

Agile project management using Jira

What is Scrum?

Understanding Scrum in detail

Scrum meetings

What is Kanban?

Project initiation and management

How to initiate projects in Jira

Role-based permissions in Jira

Scrum using Jira

Kanban using Jira

Exploring test management plugins for Jira

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Summary

Understanding Components of Testing with Jira

Requirements

What are requirements?

Issue types

Test suites

What is a test suite?

The test suite in synapseRT

The test suite in Zephyr

The test suite in Test Management

Advantages of test suites

Test plans

What is a test plan?

The test plan in synapseRT

The test plan in Zephyr

The test plan in Test Management

Traceability

What is a traceability matrix?

Types of traceability matrices

Benefits of the traceability matrix

Traceability in synapseRT

Traceability in Zephyr

Traceability in Test Management

Reports

Types of reports

Summary

Section 3: Test Management - Manage and Plan

Test Management Approach

Execution strategy for structured testing with TMap

Ad hoc test runs

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Execution in test cycles for selected releases

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test management

Best practices for test management

Summary

Test Planning

Creating and organizing a test plan using Jira plugins

synapseRT

Zephyr

The Test Management tool

Defining and implementing the test strategy

Establishing relations between requirements and the test plan

synapseRT

Zephyr

The Test Management tool

Summary

Section 4: Test Management - Design and Execute

Test Design Phase

Creating test cases

Prioritizing test cases

Test case status

Managing test artifacts and their formats

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Reusing test cases across different projects

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Organizing test cases in main and subtest suites

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Summary

Test Execution Phase

Defining test cycles

Adding test cases to the test cycle from the same project

Initializing test cycles

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Test execution status

Organizing test cycles

Completing test cycles

Adding test cases to the test cycle from a different project

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Summary

Defect Management Phase

Understanding the importance of logging defects

Creating new defects

How to create defects using Jira plugins

Designing and managing defect workflows in Jira

synapseRT

Linking existing defects to test cases

Changing a test case status with regard to defects

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Summary

Section 5: Test Management - Monitor and Control

Requirement Management

Creating the Jira issue type as requirement

Creating requirements

Prioritizing requirements

Requirement status

Managing requirement artifacts

Establishing relations between requirements and test cases

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Summary

Test Execution Status Reporting

Test plan execution reports

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Ad hoc test run reports

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Requirement-based reports

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Defect matrix reports

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Test suite report

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Burndown chart

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Summary

Section 6: Continuous Integration with Jira and Jenkins

Jira Integration with Automated Testing Tools

Understanding the DevOps pipeline

Configuring Jira plugins to connect to Jenkins

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Example workflow to integrate and execute automated scripts

synapseRT

Zephyr

Test Management

Summary

Other Books You May Enjoy

Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Preface

This book will provide a practical understanding of the test management process with Jira. The book presupposes no qualifications on the part of readers trying to streamline their test management processes and will guide you through a step-by-step approach to implementing test management effectively. It focuses on the basic concepts, covering details of the software testing process followed by the organization of test artifacts in Jira. It then explores and contrasts between the three most popular Jira plugins—Zephyr, Test Management, and synapseRT—that are widely used for test management.

Topics covered include creating and managing projects in Jira, creating Jira tickets to manage customer requirements, tracking Jira tickets, creating test plans, test cases, test suites, defects, requirement traceability matrices, and generating reports in Jira. It also covers the best practices for establishing a scalable and effective test management suite in Jira. The book primarily focuses on the following:

Familiarizing users with concepts:The reader starts with learning about software quality assurance thought processes, as well as quality management standards used in the industry, thereby familiarizing themselves with the software development process and phases with the deliverable management generated at each stage of the software development life cycle.

Familiarizing users withtools:The reader will then progress to learn how Jira can be used to organize and manage their Agile projects in Scrum and Kanban. They will also learn about Jira plugins from the Atlassian Marketplacethat will help in test management.

Understanding the test management approach:The reader will then learn how to plan and manage workflow as per their project requirements.

Learn to implement:The reader will then learn in detail the best approaches in terms of selecting various project execution workflows based on the needs of the project, as well as learn different aspects of test planning, test strategy, and test execution.

Monitoring and controlling project activities:The reader will then learn how Jira can help in defining strategy, as well as monitoring and controlling projects using different type reports.

Continuous integration with Jira and Jenkins:The reader will then learn how to configure Jira plugins to create, manage, and execute automated test scripts in Jira using Jenkins.

Who this book is for

This book is for any quality assurance professional, software project manager, or test manager interested in learning to implement test management best practices in their team or organization.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, An Overview of Software Quality Assurance, explains quality assurance thought processes and quality management standards. It also describes the software life cycle, and familiarizes the reader with the deliverables at each stage of the life cycle.

Chapter 2, Getting Started with Jira, covers how Jira can be used to organize and manage our Agile projects in Scrum and Kanban. It also discusses Jira plugins from the Atlassian Marketplace that will help in test management.

Chapter 3, Understanding Components of Testing with Jira, covers in detail how each phase of test management can be performed using the test management plugins in Jira. It also compares the features provided by each plugin.

Chapter 4, Test Management Approach, covers in detail the best approaches to selecting various project execution workflows based on the needs of the project.

Chapter 5, Test Planning, discusses different aspects of test planning and test strategy while understanding the relationship between requirements and the test plan. It also explains how Jira can help us in defining and comparing strategies for our testing needs using the synapseRT, Zephyr, and Test Management tools.

Chapter 6, Test Design Phase, explains the process of test case design and creation. It also explains how to organize test cases and hone our skills in reusing test cases and test data.

Chapter 7, Test Execution Phase, describes the process of test execution and how it will be managed using Jira.

Chapter 8, Defect Management Phase, discusses the importance of defect management and explains how Jira helps us in tracking and managing defects effectively.

Chapter 9, Requirement Management, discusses how Jira issues can be used to track project requirements. It also explains ways in which Jira can be used to link requirements with test cases as requirement coverage.

Chapter 10, Test Execution Status Reporting, explores how Jira can help monitor and control projects using reports. It details various reports offered by Jira.

Chapter 11, Jira Integration with Automated Testing Tools, explores how third-party automated testing tools can be integrated with Jira to manage automated test cases.

To get the most out of this book

We expect readers to understand the basics of the software development process and have some familiarity with Jira. Readers do not need to have any prior knowledge of test management tools, as the book will cover these concepts from the basics through to an advanced level.

To complete this book successfully, readers will require computer systems with at least an Intel Core i3 processor or equivalent, 8 GB RAM, and 4 GB of available storage space. In addition, you will require the following software:

Windows or iOS operating system.

Google Chrome / Firefox Mozilla / Internet Explorer (latest version) browsers

Jira (version 7 onward) with the synaseRT, Zephyr, and Test Management plugins. The version used in this book is 7.

Jenkins (version 2.150 onward).

Eclipse IDE.

Java 8 for Jenkins.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781789954524_ColorImages.pdf

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs,