JIRA and Bugzilla – The differences

What is JIRA?

JIRA is an issue tracking product developed by Atlassian which allows bug tracking and agile project management. The name “JIRA” is inherited from the word Gojira, the Japanese word for Godzilla, which is a reference to a competitor Bugzilla.

Why is JIRA used?

Atlassian JIRA is an issue tracking and agile project management tool which allows us to track any project by following a proper workflow. Following are the reasons behind using JIRA.

1. JIRA is a platform independent tool that could run anywhere
2. JIRA can be run anywhere
3. In JIRA, a workflow can be easily customized based on our requirement
4. JIRA acts as an issue tracking as well as project management tool
5. JIRA allows us to track the progress of a project from time to time

What are the differences between JIRA and Bugzilla?

• JIRA and Bugzilla are the two bug tracking tools that are widely being used by several organizations for quite some time now.
• JIRA is a commercial tool while Bugzilla is an open source tool
• JIRA is a user-friendly tool compared to Bugzilla
• Drag and drop issue prioritization is available in JIRA and not in Bugzilla
• JIRA has configurable link types with user-defined semantics. It has pluggable remote issue links, that allow linking an issue to any other entity outside JIRA while
  
• Bugzilla has only one link type: blocks/depends, plus a Bug ID custom field
• Unlike Bugzilla, JIRA allows defining multiple workflows which are applied based on the issue’s Project and Type
• Bugzilla can let users select the initial status of a new issue unlike JIRA
• Custom field types available in JIRA are too many to list, and even more custom field types available from plugins whereas
  
• Custom field types available in Bugzilla are Text fields, Multi-selection, Drop-down, Date/time, Bug ID
• JIRA allows conditional configuration based only on Project and Type fields. Bugzilla lets you show/hide the whole custom field or specific values based on the value of some other field
• JIRA lacks advance-level search options. JIRA has flexible JQL language (JIRA Query Language) that allows you to build arbitrary boolean expressions. Bugzilla’s comes with a powerful advanced search option

Can JIRA be used for test case management?

Although JIRA was not designed to serve as a Test Case Management tool, it can be configured to support test case management in two different ways.

You can either change native components in JIRA to meet test case management needs or you can use one of the add-ons available in Atlassian Marketplace (Example: Zephyr of JIRA)

What is a workflow in JIRA?

Workflow is defined as a series of sequential tasks that need to be completed in order to reach a certain goal.

A workflow in JIRA is defined as a series of sequential tasks (such as create/open a bug, Work in progress, and completed/closed) involved in the life cycle of a bug or an issue. The flow can be understood as below:

• Create: Create an issue or bug
• Work in progress: Series of actions performed to fix the issue
• Closed: Completion of the issue after verification

I shall cover more about JIRA workflow in my next blog. Keep reading and commenting till then.