JIRA Bug Tracking Tool Tutorial: How to Use JIRA as a Ticketing Tool

JIRA Defect Tracking: The Life Cycle of Defects in JIRA

Jira Download and Installation was explained in detail in our previous tutorial. The testing teams always have concerns about choosing JIRA for Defect Management.

The doubt is justified. It arises from the fact that, although JIRA defect tracking tool is suitable for IT businesses, it is a general ticketing system.

Even for IT projects, testers and QA teams feel uncomfortable using JIRA bug tracking tool due to its popularity with the Development teams. However, the test teams have no option but to use the JIRA defect tracking tool in most companies. Our Complete guide on JIRA training will provide you with excellent knowledge of the tool.

=> Click Here For Complete JIRA Tutorials Series

Why? The logic is simple- Companies prefer not to invest in multiple tools. It makes more sense to maximize the utilization of a single tool and avoid purchasing too many licenses.

Therefore, if a Development team is using Atlassian JIRA bug tracking tool to track its requirements, enhancements, tasks, or user stories, then the test team will most likely have to use it for bug tracking as well.

But don’t worry. JIRA’s Defect Management is just as good as any other tool. In fact, in some situations, it could even be better.

This tutorial will demonstrate how JIRA is applicable to bug tracking through screenshots and examples.

The Best Features of JIRA Defect Tracking Tool

Let’s get started.

#1) JIRA treats all work inside it as an Issue

So, in JIRA, creating a defect would mean creating an issue of the type “Bug”.

#2) Defect reporting needs the following information recorded for every issue:

• Defect ID
• Defect title
• Defect description (steps to reproduce)
• Environment information
• Screenshot(attachment)
• Severity
• Assign it to someone
• Status- All the statuses in the bug life cycle

All the options are available to create a defect effectively.

Please note the fields highlighted in Red below:

The two fields you are not seeing here are:

• Defect ID
• Status

These two fields are auto-created by JIRA. All issues will have a unique ID assigned to them by JIRA. The status of all issues is “To-Do” or “New” in JIRA by default upon creating a bug.

Therefore, all the common facilities for defect reporting are available in JIRA as well. In fact, more options such as labels, linking defects, estimating efforts can be used.

#3) Defect Life Cycle:

All bug life cycle statuses as in Bugzilla (or any other popular bug tracker) can also be accomplished here:

This may require some customization by your JIRA admin, but it is easy to do. However, even with the default setup, you won’t face any issues.

#4) Comments and collaboration with the Dev Team

Every issue, its updates, people assignment, and comments received from the Dev team – everything is tracked in JIRA under the activity log.

This allows for better visibility and collaboration with the development teams:

#5) Linking the defect to a requirement to enable traceability

The link option in the JIRA issue fields allows you to link a particular issue to another. For example, if Defect 2 is a duplicate of Defect 1, you can establish that relationship.

Similarly, if a defect is blocking a requirement or is related to a requirement, you can make this aspect visible in JIRA.

The resulting links will appear on the issue details page as shown below:

The relationship types are self-explanatory, and the usage of simple and common language words (such as relates to, caused by, etc.) makes it super easy and intuitive for any JIRA user to use this feature.

#6) Defects can be imported from a CSV file

This feature enables the bulk creation of issues in JIRA at once. If your team is new and you don’t want them to directly create issues in the tool, you can have them report the defects in an excel sheet. Once the defects are reviewed and confirmed as valid, they can be imported all at once into the tool using this functionality.

Whichever way you use it, this is a big plus.

#7) Defects can be exported into Word, XML, and printable formats

This feature allows for better portability of your defect data, especially if you want to share your defect data with non-JIRA users.

#8) Comprehensive Issue Reports:

In addition, if you need reports go to “Project – Reports” and generate all sorts of reports as shown below:

If we have to describe JIRA’s analytics in one word, it’s fantastic.

Advanced/Power users of JIRA can also create advanced search filters to generate deeper insights.

For example, if you want to look at all the defects assigned to you across multiple projects (BM and AB), you could use a JQL query like the one shown below:

So all in all, bug tracking/defect management in JIRA is very similar if not superior to dedicated bug trackers. Next time you have to work on it, don’t worry. You are in good hands.

Applicability of JIRA to Testing – An Alternative Dilemma

While this is one side of the coin, there is definitely another dimension to how people view the applicability of JIRA to QA or testing.

When you ask a group of QAs, “What is JIRA?”- Many will answer that JIRA is a defect tracking tool. This might be because defect management/tracking is all they might have used JIRA for.

However, there is a lot more to JIRA than just defect tracking. When used right, core JIRA with its agile capabilities can be your one-stop-shop for high-level project management.

It can support requirement tracking and progress, bug tracking, estimating, sprint tracking through SCRUM & KANBAN boards, reporting, and collaborating.

You might be using JIRA for one purpose, but next time try to explore more features of the tool that might make it your go-to choice.

• Customizable Dashboards
• Test Management Add-ons
• Vote and Watching an issue
• Time tracking
• Agile Project and Scrum boards
• Confluence/Documentation support integration, etc.

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Creating a Jira Issue and Various Fields

Jira Issues: Different Types of Jira Issues

Jira provides simple ways to create/log issues.

It not only allows you to file bugs but also enables you to manage other kinds of ‘tickets’ or ‘requests’. It is more of a general request management application.

This tutorial will explain more about issue types in Jira, creating an issue, different fields on the ‘Create Issue’ page, and their details in simple terms with pictorial representation for easy understanding.

Jira Issues

Different organizations may have different types of issues depending on their suitability/needs. A Jira administrator can efficiently customize this field.

Issues can have different types and their descriptions/meanings are as follows:

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Bug: This is any defect or deviation found in the application.

Enhancement request: Also known as a change request (CR). This type is used to depict any change in the existing functionality or entirely new functionality.

Task: More of a configuration or analysis issue. For example, setting up proper configurations can be considered a task.

Question: Issue can be as simple as asking a question about how to use some functionality in the application. This type is commonly used by end customers.

Epic: Normally a large issue that is broken down into several smaller issues. It can take multiple sprints to complete the main epic issue in an agile environment.

Financial Object: Used by project/product management to track finances.

Story: Represents a user story about a feature.

Test case: Specific

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