18 Best Test Management Tools For Jira In 2024
The 10 Best Test Management Tools For Jira Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
There are many test management tools for Jira available, so figuring out which is best for you is tough. You want to extend the functionality of Jira to include test management capabilities but need to figure out which tool is the best fit. I've got you! In this post I make things simple, leveraging my experience using dozens of different test management software for Jira to bring you this shortlist of the best test management tools for Jira.
What Are Test Management Tools For Jira?
Test management tools for Jira are add-ons or plugins that extend Jira's capabilities to include test case management. These tools integrate directly with Jira, a popular project management and issue tracking platform, to manage and track software testing activities. They provide functionalities for creating, organizing, executing, and monitoring test cases, all within the Jira environment.
The benefits and uses of test management tools for Jira include streamlined coordination between software development and quality assurance teams. They enable efficient management of the testing process, from planning to execution, within a familiar Jira interface. This integration enhances visibility and traceability of testing activities, improves communication, and facilitates data-driven decision-making with detailed reports on test progress and outcomes. These tools are particularly useful for teams already using Jira for project management and issue tracking, offering a unified platform for handling all aspects of software development and testing.
Need expert help selecting the right tool?
With one-on-one help, we guide you to your top software options. Narrow down your software search & make a confident choice.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Test Management Tools For Jira
Here’s a brief description of each of the best test management tools for Jira that explains what the tool does best, along with a more general overview of each tool.
New Relic is a SaaS product that offers application performance monitoring (APM) and infrastructure monitoring tools. It provides insights into the performance of your applications, helping you identify bottlenecks, troubleshoot issues, and improve the overall user experience.
It's a great fit for businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprises, and it's especially useful for teams using Jira for project management and issue tracking. New Relic's integration with Jira makes it easy to track and manage the performance of your applications alongside your development and testing processes.
The standout feature you need to know about is Destinations. Destinations within New Relic are used to send relevant data to a team or person in external software. Therefore, you will have to connect your current Jira instance to New Relic and enable two-way sync to get the most out of the product.
Once set, you can add workflows to define specific behaviors for New Relic to follow when notifying individuals or teams. All that is left is to activate your Destination. New Relic will monitor telemetrics, identify issues and generate alerts automatically so you can stay on top of your tests.
Standout features of this software include real-time monitoring, customizable dashboards, alerting and notifications, advanced analytics, and support for multiple languages and platforms.
New Relic integrates with other popular tools and services, such as Slack, PagerDuty, and AWS, making it a flexible and powerful solution for teams looking to improve their application and infrastructure performance monitoring.
Best for managing test cases and requirements as Jira issues
Tricentis Test Management is an end-to-end test management solution that integrates with DevOps tools like Jira to give teams a complete and unified view of the testing phase during the software development life cycle. It keeps the test plans and reports in Jira so that the QA, development, and other relevant teams are in sync regarding the state of the software, especially when teams are already using Jira as their DevOps tool.
Tricentis includes an intuitive user interface that seamlessly fits into Jira and helps teams quickly focus on providing quality work at every stage of a product’s test and development cycle. This allows teams to stay coordinated and make decisions regarding the testing using real-time data gathered through the reports on test creation, execution, and status.
Tricentis allows users who are used to using Jira to integrate the two solutions to effectively pull information from Jira and continue having access to tests even if the Jira server goes down. This integration gives users plenty of flexibility by being able to use one solution for certain tasks, like using Jira for bug reporting, while Tricentis offers solutions for assigning test cases to testers and creating test plans for different releases.
Having a test management software solution for an issue-tracking solution like Jira makes it easier for teams to coordinate, structure a test, pull requirements to Tricentis qTest, keep QA and development aligned in one platform, and build quality software faster.
Tricentis Test Management is free for up to 10 users.
Xray
Best for using Jira native issue types to manage testing artifacts
Xray for Jira is a complete test management tool that helps you organize, plan, execute, and report on the progress of testing and readiness to deploy.
Xray uses Jira native issue types and all requirements are linked to test cases so you’ll never overlook a test. With Xray natively integrated into Jira, developers and testers work in the same unified ecosystem which allows for transparency into the work, visibility into the testing progress and collaboration between developers and testers. This way, every test is accounted for, every task lives in the same workflow, and everyone speaks the same language.
With Xray, managers can use agile boards to track the requirement status and test execution progress in real-time. You also have robust reporting capabilities with built-in reports for traceability and coverage analysis, as well as a dashboard with gadgets to easily assess the status of testing. Xray also supports data-driven testing with parameterized tests which allows you to test large sets of iterations quickly and easily.
Integration with your favorite Continuous Integration tools, including Cucumber and Jenkins, is straightforward through our built-in REST API. Xray also integrates with leading test automation frameworks including Cucumber, JUnit, NUnit, Robot Framework, and also supports testing in BDD with Gherkin-based frameworks.
Xray offers a 30-day free trial.
PractiTest offers centralized test management for automated and manual testing processes.
This is a great tool to use with Jira—it's known as easy to configure and integrate, and once it's set up, it's completely synced with Jira, meaning that every change made in PractiTest will be updated in Jira and every update to the Jira project will be updated in PractiTest. The integration enables real-time updates between the two systems, regardless of whether you're using Jira Cloud, Jira Data Center or Jira Server.
Through the integration with Jira, you can import requirements and user stories from Jira and link them to test cases in Practitest. You can import Jira filters to Practitest as well, plus you can map Jira fields to Practitest fields, which helps you customize what information from Jira you display in Practictest. You can also report issues from tests you're running in Practitest back to your Jira project, and the tool will automatically add the steps you took into Jira along with it.
Plans start at $498/user/year. They offer a 14-day free trial.
QAlity Plus is a test management tool integrated into Jira. It assists testers by providing insights on tests performance and previous test executions. Additionally, it offers an easy way to report, link, and browse through existing bugs to maximize the efficiency of testing. QAlity Plus also promotes transparency between testers and the team by injecting test definitions into tasks, which helps everyone work and cooperate better.
QAlity Plus is free for up to 10 users, then $1.50 per user/month. Gets cheaper with more than 100 users.
Best for BDD and test management within Jira with Cucumber support
AssertThat is a BDD collaboration tool that integrates with Jira, enabling teams to manage BDD requirements directly within the Jira environment. It provides capabilities for creating Gherkin scenarios, integrating with continuous integration and delivery pipelines, and generating detailed BDD traceability reports, positioning it as an excellent solution for Jira BDD and test management.
AssertThat enables the definition of BDD requirements directly within the Jira environment. Users can define BDD requirements directly within the platform and then link them along with features and scenarios to specific Jira issues. The platform offers a Gherkin editor with autocomplete functionality to aid in writing BDD scenarios and supports integration with CI/CD pipelines and Cucumber to automate these scenarios. It also supports Cucumber, enabling the execution of automated tests written in Gherkin. Users can also integrate with GitHub and through command line interfaces, allowing the ability to incorporate AssertThat into existing workflows.
AssertThat offers integrations with various tools and platforms crucial for BDD and test management. It provides native Jira integration, allowing efficient traceability and management of BDD scenarios within the Jira ecosystem. The tool also supports integration with CI/CD pipelines and is compatible with Cucumber, enabling the execution of scenarios and collaboration using the Cucumber BDD Plugin. Additionally, AssertThat can be used with enterprise tools for updating BDD scenarios and integrates with various test automation frameworks.
AssertThat is free to use through the Atlassian Marketplace for up to 10 users. Pricing starts from $2.50 for the first 100 users.
aqua is an easy-to-use German test management system known for providing an enterprise-level service for customers of all packages for an affordable price (packages start from 39 euro/month). With aqua, you can organise tests & teams, run testing scenarios of any complexity and scale, and go from manual to automated testing smoothly. aqua's real-time analytics & enterprise-level reports give clarity over QA & dev workflows: you see what to improve & automate.
Since 2008 aqua has been serving as a test management and ALM solution for the biggest enterprises in Germany. From 2022, they also launched an SMB cloud tier which includes enterprise-level support and flexibility for an affordable price (from 39 euro/user/month).
Every package goes with the possibility of joining an unlimited number of 'Basic' free users, who can view reports, as well as create and execute test cases (perfect for manual testers). This helps you save costs by providing a paid aqua version only for test managers and automation testers.
Requirements and Test Management (RTM) is a web application that allows QAs to organize and track software testing projects in Jira. Testers have access to all of Jira’s native functionalities within RTM, enabling the integration of testing with requirements, development, and reporting. A popular functionality is Jira automation rules, which reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks like updating issue statuses or notifying users of changes to requirements. Pricing for RTM is available upon request.
Zephyr Squad is a the most popular test management solution inside Jira for small Agile teams looking to get test case design, execution, and reporting right within Jira – where the Agile team coordinates work. It also includes powerful integration for test automation and BDD, pulling all information.
Zephyr Squad costs from $10/month for up to 10 users and $4.55/user/month after that and gets cheaper as you scale. Zephyr Squad offers a 30-day free trial.
QADeputy is a test management tool that can integrate with existing automation and bug testing tools. Added to this, you can automate the tool and send automated communication to various stakeholders working with you.
QADeputy starts with a free plan, which allows you a single user, one test suite, and 100 test cases. The tool advertises a paid plan costing $18 per month, which allows you unlimited paid users, test suites, and test cases.
The 10 Best Test Management Tools For Jira Summary
Check out this side-by-side comparison chart of my top 10 picks:
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| New Relic | From $25/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Tricentis Test Management | From $1.38/user/month (first 100 users) | Website |
| Xray | From $1/user/month | Website |
| PractiTest | From $49/user/year (5 seat minumum) | Website |
| QAlity Plus | $1.50 per user/month | Website |
| AssertThat | From $2.50/User/Month | Website |
| aqua ALM | From $38/month | Website |
| Requirements and Test Management (RTM) | No details | Website |
| Zephyr Squad | $10/month for up to 10 users and $4.55/user/month after that and gets cheaper as you scale. | Website |
| QADeputy | $18 per mont | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Test Management Tools For Jira Options
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list.
- Apwide Golive
For managing test environment details
- Ranorex
For test management teams of different experience levels
- QA Wolf
Test management service for teams that use Jira
- TestRail
For tracking both manual & automated tests
- Tricentis Tosca
For continuous testing automation
- Tricentis qTest
For enterprise software testing
- Kualitee
For an easy-to-use dashboard
- Zephyr Scale
For scaling and large teams in Jira
- Testiny
With a free plan for up to 3 users
- TestMonitor
For syncing issues and requirements in Jira
Why test management solutions in Jira are crucial for agile software development
In Agile software development, quick iterations and teamwork are key. However, maintaining quality can be challenging. Test management in Jira is essential for addressing these challenges.
Test management teams oversee the product life cycle using various specialized tools. Jira-based test management tools enhance QA activities, offering features like collaboration, metrics, and traceability.
Integrating these tools into Jira eliminates the need for new infrastructure or training.
I believe that each tool on this list of the best test management tools for Jira is worthy in its own right. I’ll cover the essential features to look out for when choosing a tool, but the best tool for your team will depend on your testing process and how you track test results. Different team needs will be addressed as well, but you'll see how investing in test management within Jira is a strategic move that pays off in both the short and long term.
How to choose the right Jira test management solution for your team
I empathize with how much time it takes to source the right software for a job. I do this work so that you don't have to. I've been using and reviewing test management tools for Jira for years so you can trust me to do the heavy lifting and compile all the facts you need to make your final decision.
After careful consideration, I've determined that these are the most important criteria when selecting the best test management tools for Jira. Here's a brief list outlining the whats and whys of my selection:
Core Functionality
The basic capabilities I expected to see in a test management tool in order for it to make it onto my list were:
- Ability to execute tests: Of course, you need to be able to execute tests through the software. This should include setting up test steps and get test reports.
- Jira integration: It might seem obvious, but a Jira test management tool needs to be able to integrate with your Jira server. That includes your Jira issues, sprints, workflows, and any other important element of your Jira cloud setup.
Key Features for Jira test management solutions:
Here are the key features I look for:
- Seamless workflow: You are looking for a test management tool that works inside Jira because you don’t want to keep moving back and forth between various applications. Therefore, look for a solution that manages the whole test lifecycle and covers your end-to-end testing process in one place.
- The right metrics: Only you know the metrics that are relevant to you and which you want to track. Look at whether the tool you select will allow you to achieve this, for example with customizable dashboards. Make sure to check for customizable reporting and analytics capabilities, as well as the ability to export test plans and reports into popular file formats.
- Test automation: Many teams ditch the Excel spreadsheet for a solution that will allow for test automation as well as automation within the test management process. There are some pitfalls of test automation, but when it’s done right, it can be super helpful for development teams.
- Collaboration: A good test management tool for Jira should allow your team to share ideas and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
- Test case generation: This feature speeds up the design and creation of test cases by reusing test cases, automatically generating test cases, and more.
Other features you can look out for include analysis of test results, defect reporting, audit trails generation, and support for both manual and automated testing.
Considerations for Scalability in Jira
As your team and projects grow, your test management tool should be able to scale accordingly. Here are some factors to consider:
- User Limitations: Check if the tool can accommodate an increasing number of users without performance issues.
- Project Volume: Ensure the tool can handle a larger number of projects or test cases as your needs evolve.
- Customization: A scalable tool should offer customization options to adapt to your changing requirements.
Security Measures
Security is a paramount concern, especially when dealing with sensitive data. Here's what to look for:
- Data Encryption: Ensure the tool offers robust encryption methods for data at rest and in transit.
- User Access Control: The tool should provide granular control over who can access what within your test management environment.
- Compliance: Check if the tool complies with industry-specific security standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or ISO 27001.
- Audit Trails: A secure tool should offer detailed logs for tracking changes, which is crucial for accountability and compliance.
Usability
I expect a test management solution to make it easier for testers to execute their testing processes, manage test data, and report on their findings.
- User Interface: A friendly user interface is essential for smooth navigation and efficient task execution.
- Templates and Frameworks: Look for tools that offer templates and pre-built frameworks to streamline the testing process.
- Ease of Navigation: Notes should be added about the ease of navigating through the test suites in each platform.
I’ve added notes about how easy it is to navigate the test suites of each platform in my overviews.
Test management integrations
First and foremost, an exceptional Jira integration is what makes these test management systems particularly suited for this list. Beyond that, I also looked for:
- Other Plugins: Additional plugins and integrations with GitHub and REST APIs are valuable for custom two-way integrations.
- Open-Source Options: Consider exploring open-source test management tools for more flexibility.
The more connected your tech stack is, the more streamlined your software development process will be. There are also some open-source test management tools you might consider checking out.
Pricing
Cost will always be a factor when you’re considering a new tech tools. Some of the Jira test management tools on this list is priced per user per month, while others have flat rates per month.
- Per User vs. Flat Rates: Some tools charge per user per month, while others have flat monthly rates.
- Price Range: Costs can vary widely, from around $7 per month to over $300 per month, depending on the tool's functionality.
- Free Options: If you're on a tight budget, there are also free test management tools available.
People Also Ask: Common Questions About Test Management in Jira
Here are some common asked questions when it comes to Jira and useful test management tools:
What is the Return on Investment (ROI) for Using Test Management Tools for Jira?
Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. In the context of test management tools for Jira, ROI can be calculated by assessing the value generated through improved quality, speed, and efficiency in the testing process, against the cost of the tool itself.
Calculating ROI
The basic formula for calculating ROI is:
ROI= ((Gain from Investment−Cost of Investment)/(Cost of Investment))×100
Here’s how to apply this formula to Jira test management tools:
- Gain from Investment: This could include time saved due to automated testing, reduced number of bugs, increased team productivity, and other quantifiable benefits.
- Cost of Investment: This includes the licensing cost of the tool, training expenses, and any other associated costs.
Factors Affecting ROI
- Tool Efficiency: How well does the tool integrate with your existing systems? The smoother the integration, the higher the ROI.
- Team Adoption: The ROI is also dependent on how quickly your team adapts to the new tool. Faster adoption usually means a quicker ROI.
- Scalability: As your project grows, the tool should be able to scale with you. A tool that scales effectively can offer a better long-term ROI.
Practical Example
If a test management tool costs $1,000 per month and saves your team 50 hours a month, valued at $50 an hour, this means for every dollar invested in the tool, you get $1.50 in return.
By understanding and calculating ROI, you can make a more informed decision when selecting a test management tool for Jira, ensuring that it aligns with your team’s needs and budget constraints.
How do test management tools for Jira facilitate parallel testing?
Test management tools for Jira often support parallel testing by allowing multiple test cases to be executed simultaneously. This is usually facilitated through integration with CI/CD pipelines and distributed test execution features.
Can I integrate third-party security testing tools with these Jira-based test management solutions?
Yes, many test management tools for Jira offer APIs and plugins that allow for integration with third-party security testing tools. This enables you to incorporate security tests into your existing test management workflow.
What are Test Management Tools for Jira?
A test management tool for Jira is a testing management and quality assurance application that can be used inside Jira software. These Jira add-ons are usually designed to assist QA teams in achieving test automation, sharing information in real-time, and being able to reuse test cases.
Test management tools for Jira allow for the integration of QA testing, tracking, and analysis. You can learn more about various test management tools like JUnit, Testlink, and Selenium by visiting the Atlassian Marketplace.
Can I migrate existing test cases from another platform into a Jira-integrated test management tool? What's the process?
Most Jira-integrated test management tools offer import functionalities that allow you to migrate existing test cases. The process typically involves exporting your current test cases into a compatible format (e.g., CSV, XML) and then importing them into the Jira-based tool.
Do these tools offer any AI or machine learning features for predictive analytics in testing?
Some advanced test management tools for Jira are beginning to incorporate AI and machine learning features for predictive analytics. These features can help in identifying patterns, predicting test outcomes, and even suggesting test scenarios based on historical data.
What Do You Think About These Test Management Tools For Jira?
Have you tried any of the test management tools for Jira on my list? If you have, please share your experience. If not, we would like to know if you have used other tools I haven't included in my list like TestLodge, Practitest, or Cucumber and what your impression was. Let us know in the comments below.
Make sure to subscribe to The QA Lead newsletter for more on the best tools for quality assurance and insights from software testing experts.