Practicing clear communication in JIRA comments

In this blog post, I share how I use JIRA to document testing activities in a very simplified and quick way. I do this using what I call, “The QA Guideline for lean test case documentation“.

Top 4 Tips

1. JIRA comments to include test cases executed

2. Include a section for additional comments/observations

3. Indicate bug severity and priority (P1-High, P2-Medium, P3-Low) using text colors

4. Use icons to represent test statuses

Test Passed => :check_mark:  
Test Failed => :x: 
Test In Progress => :pause_button: 
Test Blocked => :play_pause:

Real World Example:

Screenshot of testing covered documented in the comments of a Jira story ticket.

Following this documentation in the comments, I discuss these findings with my team before logging bug tickets. This way, I help to reduce unnecessary tickets in our product backlog but still provide details to the team on the findings from testing. It’s also the best way for me to remember what was seen during a testing session.

I hope you find this helpful. I will continue to update this guide as I harden the process. Feel free to share your commenting practices or tips in the comments!