Link Issues to Test Plan that have no equivalent tests using advanced search

[Evanthia Charalampidou]

Hello everyone, 

we're using the the XRay Test Management to manage the QA process of our app. So far, I have created separate test sets to group the tests logically.

I wanted to utilize the Test Plan issue type as well and I added the tests through the test sets and created the equivalent test executions directly through the Test Plan.

However, there are some features that have no equivalent Tests that I can link. I tried linking theses issues (e.g., stories, tasks, ...) using the Link option of the Test Plan. In order to bulk link the equivalent tests, I used the advanced search, however the syntax was not recognized. It seemed like no matter what I searched using the advanced search was invalid. The JQL syntax I used was very simple and it works with the general issue search, namely:

project = ProjectName AND fixVersion in (Version 1, Version 2) AND status = Approve

Therefore, I thought this might either be a bug or a limitation of XRay or I'm doing something wrong. 

[Evanthia Charalampidou · Accepted solution]

After contacting the support for our instance, it turns out that the project name was what was causing the error. So, if you get an error when trying to link issues directly through a specific issue type (in our case Test Plan) and you're using the advanced search to filter out the equivalent issues, try using the project key instead of the name in the query.

[Stefan Salzl]

wow....that‘s really interesting 🙄

Thanks for sharing that valuable input from support here in the community so that also other users faced with this problems can find the solution. And pretty happy you got this working 🙌🏼

Best
Stefan

[Stefan Salzl]

Hi @Evanthia Charalampidou ,

I´m a bit confused by following lines:

However, there are some features that have no equivalent Tests

and then 

In order to bulk link the equivalent tests

Are they now equivalent to the stories/tasks that you linked to the tesplan? Or is this information immaterial for your requirement?

Which issues would you expect from the JQL?

Best
Stefan

[Evanthia Charalampidou]

Hello @Stefan Salzl 

thank you for replying to my post.

Basically I want to link all the issues (regardless of type) that have the status APPROVE, are in the specific project and the specific fixVersions to the Test Plan. 

As these are too many to do manually, I tried to link them by following this path:

Test Plan > More > Link

Then under Jira Issue, I chose tests in the field This issue and clicked on search for an issue. Then I chose advanced search and typed in the query:

project = ProjectName AND fixVersion in (Version 1, Version 2) AND status = Approve

That's where no matter what I searched I got an invalid query message.

[Stefan Salzl]

Hi @Evanthia Charalampidou 

could you please add screenshots of your procedure? I´m struggling with "where" this happens.

Furthermore:
What is the expected result? Is it usual linking issues to other issues (like "relates to" etc)? The purpose of the TestPlan issue is to plan test executions/activities within a project/release/sprint. So what is the purpose to link other issues than tests to a testplan?

Best
Stefan

[Evanthia Charalampidou]

@Stefan Salzl 

I made some screenshots with an example Test Plan. I hope that is clear. The Query would go in the advanced search from the last screenshot. Whatever I type into that advanced search bar is considered invalid.

We want to link issues other than tests or test executions because some stories, bugs or tasks do not have a predefined test. So we want to have easy access to all the issues that need to be tested through the test plan along with all other predefined tests.

[Stefan Salzl]

Hi @Evanthia Charalampidou 

So we want to have easy access to all the issues that need to be tested through the test plan

I got the point. My question is: Does the testplan then really tell the truth? Are eg. Stories REALLY tested with the testplan? How could the testplan test those stories when there are no TestCases that are linked to the story? From my point of view this is neither intended practice of XRAY testplan nor a clean QA process (according to traceability)

In case you mean tests of one story also cover another story, lets say we have

• "Story A" and "Story B"
• "Story A" consists of "Test 1" and "Test 2"
• "Story B" doesn´t have any tests linked as its functionality is tested with "Test 1" and "Test 2" from "Story A" 

If this is the case I would suggest to link "Test 1" and "Test 2" to "Story B" as well (not the story itself to the testplan). When the testplan (hence: the testcases) are executed this will be shown in test coverage of "Story A" as well as "Story B" as the test execution of the test cases counts for test coverage of the story (not the test plan).

If this is not the case and you would like to stick to your way:

• Are those issues within the same project (Testplan and issue that sould be linked)?
• Could you try to set this link the other way round? (eg. change to a story, add link "is tested by" and try to find the testplan) 
• I couldn´t find that information for server but in cloud it seems that link type "TEST (tests/is tested by)" can only be set for tests in relation with issues that are covered by tests 

Hope I could at least give some input.

Best
Stefan

[Evanthia Charalampidou]

Hi @Stefan Salzl 

thank you for your input. I'll bring up your suggestions in terms of the process to my colleagues. We've only recently started utilizing XRay and improving our testing process.  

Regarding the linking, it seems to be a system problem. The same steps replicated with a different issue type result also to an error. I'll report this internally to see if it's a fixable bug.

All the best,

Eva