How to Set Up BesTest in Jira: Getting Started Guide

BesTest brings requirement and test management directly into Jira: requirements, test cases, test cycles, and reporting in one place, with no separate tool to log into. It's built on Atlassian Forge, stores test data as its own entities instead of Jira issues (so your backlog stays clean), and it's free for teams of up to 10 users. This guide takes you from installation to your first executed test in about 15 minutes.

Want to click around before installing anything? The live demo runs the real app with sample data.

What you need

• •
  A Jira Cloud site. BesTest is a Jira Cloud app. A free Jira Cloud site works fine for an evaluation.
• •
  Admin rights to install. Installing a Marketplace app needs a Jira or site admin. If that's not you, send your admin the Marketplace link.
• •
  A Space to test in. Any Jira Space type works (Scrum, Kanban, team-managed). Enabling BesTest on it needs a Space admin.

Four words you'll see in this guide

Time: installation takes 2-3 minutes, enabling BesTest on a Space takes about a minute, and creating your first requirement, test case and execution takes the rest.

Install the app

1. 1
   Open the BesTest listing on the Atlassian Marketplace
2. 2
   Click "Get it now" (or "Try it free" if shown)
3. 3
   Select your Jira Cloud site and confirm
4. 4
   Wait for the installation to finish - usually under a minute

Jira admins can also find BesTest - Requirement & Test Management by searching Jira's own app marketplace under Settings > Apps.

Open it and allow access

BesTest appears in the global Apps menu at the top of Jira and in the Space menu bar at the top of each Space. The first time each user opens it, Jira asks them to press Allow access - that's the only step for users.

Enable BesTest on your Space

A Space admin turns BesTest on once per Space:

1. 1
   Open the Space and click BesTest in the Space menu bar
2. 2
   If BesTest is not enabled yet, flip the Enable BesTest switch on the screen that appears

You can also do it from Space settings > BesTest > App Settings. It takes about a minute. People who aren't Space admins see a note asking them to contact one.

More detail: Installation and Enable BesTest for a Space.

BesTest works out of the box, so configuration is mostly a quick look around.

Open BesTest from the Space menu bar. The BesTest menu has:

• •
  Dashboard: your work and the Space at a glance
• •
  Requirements: what the software must do
• •
  Test Cases: the steps that verify each requirement
• •
  Test Cycles: planned rounds of execution
• •
  Collections: reusable sets of test cases for building cycles quickly
• •
  Reports: coverage, execution and defect reports, plus test campaigns

Every catalog has folders, search and filters, and the Create button creates any of them.

In Space settings > BesTest > Reviews, a Space admin chooses whether test cases and requirements must be reviewed: Off, Optional or Required. Leave the default for now - you can switch it on later. See the test case review tutorial.

BesTest sends in-app notifications for reviews, cycle and test assignments, finished cycles and @mentions. Adjust yours under the bell icon.

The typical flow from here is:

Requirements → Test Cases → Test Cycles → Execution → Results

You don't have to follow it rigidly - you can write test cases first and link requirements later.

Requirements are the "what" your test cases verify. Creating them first gives you coverage from day one: you'll see which requirements have enough tests, and where the gaps are.

Step-by-step: create a requirement

1. 1
   In BesTest, go to Requirements
2. 2
   Click "Add Requirement"
3. 3
   Fill in the General tab:

1. 4
   Click "Save Requirement"

Impact and Complexity (Low / Medium / High) together give the requirement its significance - here High - and significance decides how many linked test cases it needs to count as covered: Low 1, Medium 3, High 5, Critical 8.

Link it to a Jira work item

Connect the requirement to the story or epic it comes from:

1. 1
   Open the requirement and go to the Links tab
2. 2
   Click "Add Links", pick the work item, and confirm

The link shows on both sides: in BesTest and in the BesTest panel on the Jira work item.

Now write a test case that verifies the requirement.

Step-by-step: create a test case

1. 1
   Go to Test Cases and click "Add Test Case"
2. 2
   Fill in the General tab:

1. 3
   Switch to the Test Steps tab and add the steps. Each step has a Test step, optional Test data and an Expected result. Press Tab in the last Expected result to add the next step; drag a step (or Alt + ↑ / ↓) to reorder.

1. 4
   Click "Save Test Case"

Best practices for test steps

• •
  One action per step, so a failure points at one place
• •
  Specific inputs: "Enter testuser@example.com" beats "Enter a valid email"
• •
  Observable expected results: "Dashboard shows 'Hello, Test User'" beats "Page loads correctly"
• •
  Preconditions: state everything that must be true before step 1

More on the editor and BDD: Test Cases and BDD (Gherkin). For a writing guide, see How to Write Test Cases.

Linking is what turns two separate items into traceability. Once a requirement has linked test cases, BesTest works out its coverage by itself.

Method 1: From the requirement

1. 1
   Open the requirement you created
2. 2
   In the Traceability card on the Overview tab, click "Add Existing"
3. 3
   Search for your test case by name or key, select it and confirm

"Create & Link" in the same card creates new test cases (one name per line) that are linked straight away.

Method 2: From the test case

1. 1
   Open the test case
2. 2
   Go to the Links tab and click "Add Links"
3. 3
   Pick the requirement and confirm

Both create the same two-way link.

Reading coverage

Back in Requirements, the Coverage column shows one of three values:

• •
  Covered: enough linked test cases for the requirement's significance
• •
  Partly covered: some linked, but fewer than its significance needs
• •
  Not covered: no linked test cases

Your example requirement has High significance and one linked test case, so it shows Partly covered - the Coverage card on its Overview reads "Test cases: 1 linked of 5 needed". That's the point of the model: an important requirement needs more than one happy-path test.

If you know better than the count (for example the requirement is tested elsewhere), click the coverage chip and set Decision to Covered or Not covered. A hand icon shows that a person decided. More in Requirements.

Time to run the test and record the result.

A test cycle is a planned run of one or more test cases.

1. 1
   Go to Test Cycles and click "New Test Cycle"
2. 2
   On the General tab, fill in:

1. 3
   Open the Test Cases tab, check your test case and click "Add Selected"
2. 4
   Check the Planning tab (assign a tester here if you like) and click "Save Test Cycle"

Results can only be recorded once the cycle is Ready to Execute. If you left it in Draft, open the cycle and change its status first.

1. 1
   Click "Open Test Player" in the confirmation message, or "Test Player" on the cycle's Overview
2. 2
   Select your test case on the left (or press Next to do) and click "Start Execution" - the test case is assigned to you and the timer starts
3. 3
   For each step, do the action, compare with the expected result and mark the step Passed, Failed or Blocked. Add a note if something is worth recording.
4. 4
   The test case result follows from the step results; you can also set it directly (keyboard: P, F, B, S)

BesTest has no attachments of its own. When you need a screenshot or log, create or link a Jira work item from the step and attach the file there - it stays connected to the execution.

BesTest records every step result, note, time spent, tester and timestamp.

Where to look

• •
  The cycle's Overview: execution progress, pass rate and results per status
• •
  The cycle's Executions tab: every run in the cycle
• •
  The test case's Executions tab: the history of one test case across cycles
• •
  Reports: for example Test Execution Results, Defect Analysis and the Requirements Traceability Matrix (coverage, latest results and linked bugs per requirement, with a risk level). Reports export to PDF. See Reports.

When a test fails

1. 1
   Review the failure: which step failed, and what actually happened
2. 2
   Log a defect: on the failed step, click Create Work Item. BesTest opens the Jira create form as a Bug, pre-filled with the test case key, the step, and the expected vs. actual result, and links the new bug to the execution
3. 3
   Track the fix in your normal Jira workflow
4. 4
   Re-test: start a New Run of the test case in the same cycle. If the cycle was already Done, this reopens it, and it closes again when every run has a result

That gives you a complete chain:

Requirement → Test Case → Test Execution (Failed) → Jira Bug

So you can answer "which requirement does this bug affect?" and "was the fix re-tested?" without digging.

Once you have more than a handful of test cases, Smart Collections save you from picking test cases by hand for every cycle.

A collection (Collections in the BesTest menu) combines up to three sources:

• •
  Rules: a filter on test cases, for example "everything in the Regression folder with priority High or Critical". New matching test cases are picked up automatically.
• •
  Requirements: the test cases linked to the requirements you pick.
• •
  Test Cases: a hand-picked, fixed set.

When you create a cycle, add a whole collection on the Collections tab instead of selecting test cases one by one.

You've installed BesTest, created a requirement and a test case, linked them, executed the test and reviewed the result. Next:

Grow the test suite

1. 1
   List your Space's key features and workflows
2. 2
   Create a requirement for each (bulk create helps)
3. 3
   Write test cases until each requirement shows Covered - happy path, edge cases, error handling
4. 4
   Plan cycles from requirements or collections

Put coverage on a Jira dashboard

Edit a Jira dashboard, add a BesTest gadget (for example Execution Overview or Requirement Coverage Breakdown) and choose its scope. Product owners then see testing status without opening BesTest. See Jira Dashboard Gadgets.

Add reviews and approvals

For UAT or regulated work, send test cases and requirements to one or more reviewers before they're used. Follow the test case review tutorial.

Recommended next reads

• •
  Creating Your First Test Cycle - plan, run and report a full cycle
• •
  Requirements Traceability in BesTest - coverage and release decisions
• •
  UAT in Jira: User Acceptance Testing Guide - run UAT cycles with BesTest