יום רביעי, 30 באוקטובר 2013

JIRA Tips

Like other software companies, we use an issue tracker. There are lots of trackers out there and our company works with JIRA, one of the most common tools in use today. JIRA is modern and intuitive, and even offers an annual practical joke.
Due to recent requests by people from within and without my company to explain how I use JIRA in the testing environment and for the tracking of version status, I will offer a few tips and links that may help you start using JIRA like I do.
Filters and (JQL)
Filters are the basis for a lot of the analysis work you can do in JIRA. They are saved queries that can be run in basic mode (form based) or advanced mode (JQL).
JIRA has its own query language - JQL, don’t be afraid to use it. Its intuitive nature will be much appreciated, especially if you are familiar with different kinds of queries.
In addition, when you become familiar with the JQL mode, you’ll find it much easier and faster to use than the basic mode.
Options for filters include managing them, sharing them with others, keeping them private, cloning them (which can save lots of time), and more.
Regression
A useful checkbox field can be added to each bug to indicate if it is a regression. The quality policy in my company is not to approve a release if a regression exists and every regression must be corrected immediately.
Dashboards and Gadgets
In JIRA, you can create as many dashboards as you want and configure them to suit your requirements. You can also share your dashboards with others or keep them private.
o  “Recently Created Chart”

In my company, we use this chart together with the filter of all bugs found in the tracked version that have a priority higher than major or are marked with “regression”. I expect that as we move closer to the release date, the amount of active bugs will decrease and the columns will appear in green (meaning the bugs were fixed).
o  Tracking a risk area in your project
You can use the pie graph in JIRA to locate problems in the project. For example, you can create a pie graph with statistical information indicating regression. This will help you discover if your project has a problem with its work processes.
As another example, you can use a statistical graph for different system components to determine where most of the bugs in the system occur and why.

Hierarchical trees
Truth be told, this is one of the most important features that JIRA lacks. However, you can work around this by using epics and user stories. In addition, make sure bugs are linked to epics.
Although this may not provide a perfect solution, it does a good job of covering the issue and helps gather all the bugs in one place.
Another option is to use a Structure plugin.
Hierarchical trees
Truth be told, this is one of the most important features that JIRA lacks. However, you can work around this by using epics and user stories. In addition, make sure bugs are linked to epics.
Although this may not provide a perfect solution, it does a good job of covering the issue and helps gather all the bugs in one place.
Another option is to use a Structure plugin.
Plugins
Here are a few plugins you may want to check out:
o  Agile (older name: Green Hopper) - A superb tool for agile teams.
o  Capture (older name: Bonfire) - Great for exploratory testing and the latest word in software testing. If you use this tool, make sure to read about the special annotation in the notes .

o  Zephyr for JIRA - If you can live without hierarchical trees, you may find this tool useful when it comes to managing your manual tests.

יום שבת, 12 באוקטובר 2013

Test managing tool within the budget limit

At the beginning of our project (as with other projects) we wrote and managed our test in Excel files. It was great at the beginning, when we had small test sets that were all run manually by the same person who represented the entire QA team.
As time passed and our test sets grew , the number of our test cases increased to more than 500, some of which were run manually and some of which were automated on different platforms. Our team grew as well and it became impossible to manage everything via  Excel files. Producing test documents such as ATP, STP and STR became a nightmare and the chaos grew in leaps and bounds.
We needed a test management tool for our project - a tool that would integrate with the different frameworks we already worked with and wouldn’t upset the entire system. This tool would help us control the version quality development and status and provide us with an option to communicate the relevant information to the stakeholders (managers, customers, others) within minutes.
We didn’t want to spend too much of our project’s budget on the tool, since we needed the budget for the development of automation and to support the  manpower that comprised our team. In addition,  if the tool was simple, we wouldn’t have to spend more of our budget on  training the tester to work with the new tool.

Our criteria included the following:
·      Write and organize test cases according to our module and testing phase.
·      Plan test sets and execute them.
·      Tractability between the requirement, tests and bugs.
·      Generate reports.
·      Support custom dashboards to control project quality.
·      Integration with JIRA as our bug tracker.
·      Integration with the different frameworks we were using (QTP, Telerik Test Studio, Soap UI, Jenkins, etc.).
·      And the bottom line: price.

We tried five management tools:
·      Quality Center
·      PractiTest
·      Zephyr
·      Zephyr for JIRA
·      Xstudio


In the end, we decided to go with PractiTest. Besides the fair price and trivial functionality we were looking for, which constituted our basic criteria, we liked the idea of the Filters. This feature presented out-of-the-box thinking of how to organize and reuse test cases via hierarchical filters, instead of the classic hierarchical folders. The filter is a superb implementation of the Agile theory in the software testing world.

And there was also one more small advantage -  the satisfactory patriotic feeling I experienced after the purchase was approved, since being an Israeli,  I of course like to support our home-grown industries.