Xray Requirement Coverage explained: automating quality with Test Executions

What does “Requirement Coverage” mean?

Xray’s Requirement Coverage refers to how defined requirements inside a specific project are being validated by tests. Each requirement – whether Jira Story, Epic or Feature - should be connected to one or more test cases. When these tests are being executed and the results are being reported, the coverage status of the requirements automatically updates.

Bottom line, only creating tests is not enough. It is essential to know which requirements are being tested, as well as validated, and if the tests PASS or FAIL.

Why is automating Requirement Coverage visibility a strategic advantage?

Generating manual visibility of your Requirement Coverage creates blind spots, especially in fast or highly regulated environments. By authorizing this process with Xray, your team can:

• Reduce dependency on worksheets.
• Data can flow in real time and CI/CD pipelines directly inside Jira.
• Coverage is always being updated and aligned with changes in code, test results and release goals.
• Product managers and QA leads get more actionable quality inputs, instead of unstructured activity registers.

Your team will be able to make safer release decisions, detect issues earlier and easily ensure compliance, which is something crucial to enterprises that are working with DevOps and Continuous Testing.

How does Xray calculate and visualize Requirement Coverage?

Xray created your Requirement Coverage by analyzing the correlation between:

• Requirements (issues inside Jira like Stories or Epics).
• Test cases linked to those Requirements.
• Test Executions (manual or automated) with results like “PASSED”, “FAILED” ou “NOT EXECUTED”.

Coverage can be analyzed as following:

• Passed: the requirement was successfully validated.
• Failed: the requirement was tested but failed, which usually means defects were found and designed needs to be improved.
• Not Executed: the requirement was not yet verified.

You can assess your Coverage through:

• Requirement Coverage reports
• Traceability Matrix
• Xray Gadgets and Dashboards inside Jira
• Custom JQL queries
• External tools via Xray REST API
  
  

How do you automate Requirement Coverage in Xray using test executions?

A typical automation flow includes:

1. Creating automated tests using frameworks like JUnit, TestNG, Cucumber or Cypress.
2. Linking tests to requirements inside Jira manually or using annotations (e.g., @REQ-123 in BDD scenarios).
3. Executing tests through CI/CD pipelines, like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab or Azure DevOps.
4. Sending results to Xray using a REST API, or native integrations.
5. Generating coverage reports in real time directly in Jira call mom linking them to each requirement.

This process ensures that each test execution status is immediately updated to your backlog’s quality status, creating a clear feedback cycle for development teams and QA.

Which tools integrate with Xray for automated test execution and coverage reporting?

Xray can efficiently integrate with:

• CI/CD tools: Jenkins, Bamboo, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket Pipelines.
• Test frameworks: JUnit, NUnit, TestNG, Cucumber, Robot Framework, Playwright, Cypress.
• Build tools: Maven, Gradle.
• Reporting/BI tools: Power BI, Tableau, Grafana (using Xray REST API).

These integrations allow for a continuous test execution data flow through Jira, ensuring full traceability and coverage are updated in real-time.

Common pitfalls when automating Requirement Coverage in Xray

By automating Requirement Coverage with Xray, there are common pitfalls that can be mitigated:

• Unlinked Requirements: having tests created but not linked to any requirements will have your coverage showing a 0% score.
  Solution: implementing tagging strategies (e.g., Gherkin tags) or reinforce this team process.
  
  
• Stale Test Cases: Test cases  can be linked but aren’t being maintained or executed in future releases.
  Solution: do testing health checks regularly, and automate executions in CI pipelines.
  
  

•  Misaligned Scopes: Executing tests in an environment or different version from the one that the coverage report is analyzing.
  Solution: Always ensure that there's alignment between test plans, environments and versions.

• Overlinking Tests: Too many requirements to a specific generic test might reduce the coverage precision.
  Solution: ensure that tests are specific to each requirement, offering actionable feedback.

How do high-performing teams use Requirement Coverage to drive decisions?

High performance teams are not only looking at the PASS or FAIL results. They're using Requirement Coverage as a metric to assess release risks. For instance, your team can:

• Define coverage thresholds like quality gates in CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Block releases if <90% of critical requirements are validated).
• Use requirement status for decision making instead of only successful builds.
• Creating real time dashboards so that product owners and QA can have a clear view of what's being tested and what's already done.

How to get started with automating Requirement Coverage in Xray

To start automating your Requirement Coverage with Xray, we recommend:

• Defining clear requirement types inside Jira (e.g., Epics, Stories, Features).
• Connect each requirement using native-Jira links or BDD tags.
• Find a pattern for your CI/CD process to execute tests and report results in Xray.
• Use customizable gadgets and dashboards to track coverage in real time.
• Establish coverage targets and integrate them as quality gates inside pipelines.

Your requirement coverage transforms testing from a passive process to a constant feedback loop. By doing so, your team no longer depends on manual reports and gains confidence in quicker releases, with complete traceability as well as visibility of what is done and what still needs further attention.