The document discusses the use of Jira and Zephyr in an ERP transformation program, highlighting the challenges faced by Sundar, who managed the delivery and testing frameworks. Despite creating an innovative system, Sundar encountered limitations in Jira's capabilities, specifically in tracking the status of linked issues and integrating test execution statuses from Zephyr. The document concludes with suggested improvements aimed at enhancing the integration and functionality of Jira for test managers.

1. Jira Feature Improvement
Koushik Mukherjee

2. Agend
a
 Innovation & the ‘Plight’
 Searching the ‘Community’
 Suggested Improvements & value
addition
 In ‘Conclusion’
Jira Feature Improvement 2

3. Introductio
n
Jira has been the most sought-after tool in
project management and in organizations
adopting agile ways of working. In one such
organization, which was on the path of agile
adoption & ERP transformation, Jira was
selected as the go-to tool for its program
management and Zephyr (part of Atlassian
Marketplace) was selected as the test
management tool.
Sundar was playing the dual role of Jira admin &
Test Manager. He was tasked to set up the entire
delivery framework in Jira and the test
management framework in Zephyr.
3
Jira Feature Improvement

4. Innovation & the
‘Plight’
How Sundar used multiple Jira features to create the
delivery framework but the lack of certain features held
him back from being perfect !!!

5. The ‘innovative’ Delivery
Framework
5
Jira Feature Improvement
The Kanban framework was adopted for the ERP transformation program. Sundar prepared the Jira issue
types specific to the program as below:
Program Component Jira issue type Custom/In-built Linked Relationship
ERP Transformation Epic In-built N/A
SAP Modules Modules Custom is child of ‘Epic’
SAP sub-modules Features In-built is child of ’Modules’
Deliverables Requirements Custom is child of ‘Features’
Design Documents Document Deliverables Custom is child of ‘Requirements’
Test cases Test In-built is child of ‘Requirements’

6. The Hierarchy & the ‘Innovation’
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Jira Feature Improvement
Epic
Modules
Features
Requirements
Document
Deliverables
Test
Being an extensive ERP transformation program, around 253 requirement cards
were created using the Jira import feature. Each requirement had multiple
‘Document Deliverables’ linked to it and at least one ‘Test’ card would be used
from the QA perspective to verify the requirement implementation.
A non-editable (by normal user) custom field (Requirement Met?) was created in
the requirement cards to keep a strong quality gate. This would only be populated
(via Jira automation feature, as thought out) with the value ‘Yes’ once the ‘Status
Category’ of all the linked cards to a requirement card, i.e. ‘Document
Deliverables’ & ‘Test’, was marked as ‘Done’.

7. The ‘Plight’
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Jira Feature Improvement
Sundar was widely appreciated for presenting such an efficient way of managing deliverables with strong
attention to detail and keeping sufficient quality checks.
To his utter surprise and eventual disappointment, Sundar found that Jira doesn’t give the capability to capture
the ‘Status Category’ of linked cards via JQL or smart values (either in the ‘Filters’ section or while writing the
automation). He was crestfallen!!!
Cannot filter by Linked Issue Status/Status Category
Cannot filter by Linked Issue Status/Status Category

8. The ‘Plight’
8
Jira Feature Improvement
Test Case status in Zephyr is not reflected in JIRA
Adding to his & the project team’s frustration, they also noticed that the status of a test case execution in
Zephyr is not reflected in the test card in Jira. The below snapshot shows a test card that is linked to a
requirement but doesn’t have an execution status associated with it. The ‘Backlog’ shown is the Jira status and
not the test execution status as present in Zephyr.
This led to ambiguous interpretations by higher management and multiple rounds of discussion were held to
explain this adding an overhead to Sundar.

9. Searching the
‘Community’
Being dejected, Sundar referred to Atlassian Community
for solutions or any workarounds !!!

10. Shooting arrows in the dark!!!
10
Jira Feature Improvement
Sundar turned to Atlassian Community to seek solutions or workarounds if someone in the community had
faced such challenges. He found:
• Some questions posted that closely resemble the one trying to fetch the status of linked issues but are not
exactly the same. Also, there is no simple straightforward solution.
• The conversation in this link closely resembles the question about having the test execution status in
Zephyr reflected in Jira but again there is no solution to that either.
Sundar understood there were no such readily available solutions as of now and he has to live with the
limitations. However, he thought of showcasing Atlassian, and the impact it would create if these user pain
points are addressed. He thus tried to come up with wireframes addressing simple solutions to these.

11. Suggested
improvements &
value additions
Sundar decided to present his suggestions to Atlassian &
showcase the value additions it can bring to Jira …

12. Creating JQL keywords or smart
values
12
Jira Feature Improvement
To capture the status of all linked issues in a card, the below highlighted JQL keyword can be developed. This can
then be easily used in filters or elsewhere to check if all the linked issues of a particular card are equal to or not
equal to a particular status. This will enable users to capture the progress of a parent card with multiple linked
issues.

13. Getting the Test status
13
Jira Feature Improvement
Whenever a customer selects Zephyr as the test management tool and integrates it with the Jira instance – an
exclusive board for test cards must automatically be created with 3 columns (To Do, In Progress, Completed). The
test cards would be automatically placed in one of the 3 columns as per the below mapping and also the latest
Zephyr status would be reflected in the card :
Jira Status Zephyr Status
To-Do Unexecuted
In-Progress WIP, Blocked, Fail
Completed Pass, Not Applicable

14. Getting the Test status in test
board
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Jira Feature Improvement
A high-fidelity wireframe of the suggested test board:
Card Summary
Epic Link
Assignee Name
Zephyr Status
Assignee Name
icon
Card Number
Issue Type
(Test) icon

15. Getting the Test status in linked issue
view
15
Jira Feature Improvement
A high-fidelity wireframe of the view when a test card is linked to another card (story, epic, etc..)
Zephyr Status
Jira Status

16. In
‘Conclusion’
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Jira Feature Improvement
There are about 9000 customers using Zephyr as
their test management suite and often these
organizations want as much visibility, integration &
intertwined information between Jira & Zephyr.
Sundar believes this would go a long way in making the life of Test Managers easier and they can represent the
information in a better way to senior stakeholders without much hassle.
Additionally, the greater the number of SQL keywords/smart values at the disposal of a Jira admin/user, the
more is their flexibility and independence to use the automation feature and make Jira more seamless.

17. Thank You
Koushik Mukherjee
mukherjee.koushik89@gmail.com
+919002026041