This post was last updated February 2026
Test coverage and requirements traceability are two of the most important signals of testing health. Coverage tells you whether each Jira user story has tests behind it. Traceability shows how requirements connect to test cases, results, and defects so you can audit releases, assess risk, and spot gaps fast.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to:
- Show test coverage in Jira (which stories are covered by tests)
- Maintain requirements traceability from Jira issues to tests and defects
- Generate a traceability report in Jira without building spreadsheets by hand
To report on coverage or traceability, you need two ingredients:
- Jira requirements artifacts (user stories, epics, or other issue types)
- testing artifacts (test cases, test results, and defects)
Many teams try to manage tests directly in Jira by using subtasks, custom issue types, or heavy manual linking. The challenge is that Jira is not built as a test management system, so coverage and traceability reporting typically becomes manual and time-consuming.
Below, we’ll walk through a practical workflow using TestRail’s Jira integration to track coverage and generate traceability reporting for Jira user stories.
Step 1: Identify and review requirements in Jira
Step 2: Write test cases for each requirement
Step 3: Create a test coverage report
Step 4: Run tests and log defects in Jira
Step 5: Create a requirements traceability report
Step 1: Identify and review requirements in Jira
Most teams track requirements and development work in Jira using issue types like epics and user stories. These issues may include detailed acceptance criteria, or they may be shorter descriptions of a feature from the end user’s perspective.
To build a test coverage or traceability report, start by identifying which Jira user stories are in scope for your next sprint or release. Then review each story to confirm what needs to be validated, including:
- Acceptance criteria and expected outcomes
- Dependencies or integrations that could impact testing
- Areas of higher risk that may need deeper coverage
This gives you the baseline set of Jira requirements you’ll map to test cases, test results, and defects in the steps that follow.
Step 2: Write test cases for each requirement
Once you’ve identified the Jira user stories that need testing, write test cases that validate each requirement and its acceptance criteria. Teams typically handle this in one of three ways:
- Write test cases directly in Jira (Example: as sub-tasks on an issue in Jira)
- Create a custom “testing” issue type or use a Jira testing add-on
- Use a dedicated test case management tool and link tests back to Jira requirements
If your main goal is reporting on test coverage and/or traceability, the fastest and most reliable option is to use a test management tool with built-in coverage and traceability reporting. It reduces manual work and makes it easier to keep links current as Jira issues change.
As you create test cases, link each one to the Jira requirement it covers. In TestRail, you can copy/paste a Jira issue ID for your user stories or requirements into the References field on test cases or test results artifacts to indicate that the test is related and provide live two-way visibility between the two platforms.
With the TestRail-Jira integration, QA leads can view live Jira fields (like status, fix version, and assignee) next to linked requirements and defects inside TestRail. Learn more about how the integration works here.
Step 3: Create a test coverage report
A test coverage report answers a simple question: Which Jira user stories have tests, and which ones still need test coverage?
If your test cases live as Jira issues or sub-tasks, creating a test coverage report is a manual exercise that can be time-consuming and prone to error.
A common approach to creating a coverage report in this scenario is to copy the Jira issue IDs for your user stories into a spreadsheet. Then, create a second column to list the IDs for each test case issue you’ve created and linked to each user story. You can use spreadsheet functions to count how many user story IDs have corresponding test case issue IDs and how many do not, and create a chart to facilitate that data interpretation if desired. Although this approach works, it will be challenging to maintain—as it will quickly become outdated as requirements change, new IDs are added, and links go stale.
Using a test management platform that integrates with Jira is an easy way to save valuable time on test coverage reporting. One such integration is Jira Issue Connect, which brings live Jira data directly into TestRail—unlocking full References and Defects coverage tracking at the click of a button. For detailed steps to quickly create a coverage report in TestRail, check out TestRail’s test coverage report documentation.
Step 4: Run tests and log defects in Jira
Once you’ve created test cases to cover your Jira user stories, you can start executing tests in a test run or test plan. As you run your tests, it’s important to link defects directly to the executed test, to ensure full traceability.
When you find a bug during testing in TestRail, there are two ways to report defects:
- Link an existing Jira issue by adding the Jira key in the Defects field on a test result.
- Create a new Jira issue from TestRail (if enabled in your integration), so testers can file bugs without leaving the test result workflow.
New Jira issues will automatically appear live within their linked TestRail test result, showing status, assignee, and more in real time. This makes it much easier to review readiness before release and to troubleshoot regressions when something breaks.
Step 5: Create a requirements traceability report
Once test cases are written and you have test results and defects linked, you can generate a requirements traceability view to answer:
- Which Jira requirements are covered by tests?
- What is the execution status of those tests?
- Which requirements have related defects?
- Where are the gaps or highest risk areas before release?
Option A: Manually create a traceability matrix (RTM)
If you are creating a traceability report manually, you will likely use a requirements traceability matrix (RTM) in Excel or Google Sheets. A basic RTM can include:
- Test cases to be executed and the tester assigned to each
- Execution status (pass, fail, blocked, skipped, not run)
- Design status for the specific test cases (In design, in review, ready to test)
- Requirement ID to measure coverage
- Related defects (Defect issue IDs)
- Overall status and percentage of test execution
Steps to create a basic RTM:
1. Define your goal
- Example: “I want to create a traceability matrix to know which tests and issues are impacted if a requirement changes.”
2. Gather your artifacts
- Test cases,expected test results, known defects, Jira user stories
3. Create your RTM columns
- At minimum: Requirement (Jira key), Test Cases, Status, Assignee, Defects.
4. Add your Jira requirements
- Add Requirements descriptions and IDs/titles.
5. Map test cases to each requirement
- Add Test case IDs or links that validate the requirement.
6. Add test results and defects
- Include test execution status and any Jira defects tied to failures.
7. Update the matrix
- Update the matrix whenever there is a change in any artifacts to reflect the project’s current health.
Here is an example of a traceability matrix in a Google or Excel spreadsheet (Note: For various project iterations, there will usually be more columns).
This approach works, but it can become time-consuming to maintain as Jira issues move across sprints and requirements evolve.
Option B: Auto-generate a traceability report using TestRail with Jira
If you use TestRail with Jira, you can create traceability by linking Jira requirements to tests and results, then reporting on those links.
A common workflow looks like this:
- Link Test Cases and Defects from TestRail
To link Test Cases, you simply need to add the Jira Story or Requirement ID in the “Reference” field when creating a test case, or at any time during editing. You can also bulk edit multiple test cases and assign the same Jira reference to all of them at once.
The Jira Issue ID can be found at the end of the issue URL (for example, in https://jiratestrail.atlassian.net/browse/TRM-42, the Issue ID is TRM-42). Once this ID is added to the Reference field, the test case is automatically linked to Jira. You can verify key Jira issue details by hovering over the displayed link, which shows a popup with relevant information. Clicking the link redirects the user directly to the corresponding Jira issue page.
For defects, the process is very similar. Defects can be pushed to Jira directly from TestRail by filling in all required fields defined in the Jira integration plugin. Alternatively, you can create the defect in Jira first, and then link it in TestRail by adding the Jira Issue ID as a reference.
- Navigating between linked test cases and user stories
After all the required information to create a new test case is completed and that data is saved, you can click the Reference link in your test case to be redirected to that story in Jira.
Inside Jira, you can open the TestRail cases panel and see which test cases are covering that user story, providing coverage insights at-a-glance.
To view or edit the details of a test case, just click on it and you will be automatically redirected back to that case in TestRail in a new tab.
- Quickly add a reference to the multiple test cases
From the TestRail test case repository, it’s possible to bulk edit a list of test cases and easily add a user story reference to multiple test cases at once. To do this, just select the cases, click Edit, add your user story Issue ID in the References field, and save the changes. You have now created traceability between these tests and your desired user story.
Together, traceability and test coverage help minimize risk and ensure that your QA testing process is comprehensive and secure.
To learn more about how you can build an efficient testing process, track coverage, and build comprehensive traceability between development and QA using Jira and TestRail, check out TestRail Academy’s free online courses TestRail & Jira Cloud and TestRail & Jira Server.
Ready to take your QA processes to the next level? Sign up for a free 30-day trial today and see how TestRail can help streamline your test management! efforts
FAQs
What does requirements traceability mean in Jira?
Requirements traceability is a way to measure test coverage and usually refers to tracking a business requirement across different stages of the development lifecycle (i.e., requirement gathering, design, development, testing, and maintenance).
Traceability is essential for risk mitigation because it allows you to identify an item as problematic, understand what changes caused it, and determine how to address it. Full traceability is crucial to compliance and risk mitigation efforts, as seen in this case study from Convercent.
In Jira, traceability refers to the ability to track each user story, requirement, or issue to a corresponding test and any resulting defects. You should be able to see linked test cases and results on individual requirements and generate a full traceability report showing your Jira issues and all their linked test artifacts at once.
Image: Instantly generate traceability reports in TestRail so that your team can see the status of testing in real-time, evaluate coverage, and link tests to requirements and defects in Atlassian Jira.
What is test coverage in Jira?
Test coverage is a QA metric that measures how much of the product or application being tested is covered by tests. Test coverage also helps ensure that you have prepared, designed, and planned tests to cover every part of the application.
In Jira, test coverage helps us determine the number of tests run, passed, failed, blocked, etc. for every feature or product requirement we have written in Jira as a user story, epic, or issue.
Typically, you can track Jira test coverage by linking user stories with their associated test cases and vice versa. Test coverage is vital to ensuring that no feature is going untested.
The idea is to know the percentage of requirements that have a test case written for them. The higher the percentage, the more confidence we can have that our testing activities will uncover any potential risks in our application.
Image: TestRail’s Coverage for References (Cases) report offers you the ability to get a quick glance into test coverage for references in a coverage matrix.
Tracking test coverage status throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC) allows you to identify areas where you don’t have adequate coverage and take action to avoid any decrease in quality. This also helps to ensure that defects will be kept from production. If defects exist in the application, they will be caught during the testing phase rather than when the product is already live. This provides a brief overview of the current health of the development project.
What is the difference between test coverage and traceability?
Test coverage measures how much of the product being tested is covered by tests. Typically, a requirement is considered “covered” only if it has corresponding test cases against it and test engineers assigned to it.
Traceability refers to the established connections between various requirements levels, risk analysis, designs, and verification. A traceability matrix serves to map the test cases to the requirements. It serves as a checklist wherein all the requirements are listed, and the test cases covering the corresponding requirement are listed against each requirement.
Why is it important to track test coverage and traceability in Jira?
- Maintaining forward and backward traceability ensures visibility: It confirms requirements are covered by test cases, highlights dependencies between artifacts, and helps teams spot coverage gaps early.
- Traceability helps manage continuous change: When requirements change, traceability makes it easier to identify impacted work, estimate effort, and take action quickly.
- Traceability streamlines the auditing process: It helps auditors review requirements and related artifacts, and allows teams to find and fix inconsistencies earlier with less effort.
- Traceability makes test management more effective: It helps test managers validate coverage, keep test libraries aligned to current requirements, and track defects back to the original requirement for better reporting and metrics.
- Test coverage saves you time: It surfaces gaps across requirements, tests, and defects earlier in the SDLC and helps reduce duplicate test cases.
- Test coverage mitigates the risk of new releases: Strong coverage reduces production defects, improves release quality, and increases confidence that key requirements were tested.
Promotes smoother testing cycles: Coverage helps teams prioritize testing and regression work, identify untested areas, and resolve defects faster while staying on top of scope.
