Trello vs Jira: Which Is Better for Bug Tracking?

The article by Karen Manucharian, Release Manager at QA Madness

Today, we are going to talk about bug trackers. Let’s say you decided to start a new project that requires software development. For sure, you can entrust your managers, QA engineers, and developers to keep track of bugs as well as current and future tasks in Google Docs. But this can be bad for their mental health 🙂

There is no software without bugs. Even if it’s a small project, you should have proper documentation and arrange it nicely. That’s where bug tracking tools come into play.

What Is a Bug Tracker?

A bug tracker, or a bug tracking system, is a software solution for development teams. It allows project managers, developers, and QA engineers to track, control, and manage bugs found by the testing team. Such a system makes it possible to monitor defects throughout their entire life cycle, from logging to closure.

Jira and Trello are on the list of the most frequently used tools. Both facilitate the bug tracking process, but both came with some particularities. As a result, each tool would perform better in specific conditions. So let’s figure out the difference between Trello and Jira to know all the pros and cons when the time to choose comes.

Trello: Features And Functionality

Trello is a simple system for managing small projects. It is a free tool, but there is a paid version with extended functionality. The free version has:

• limits on the number of boards (ten for one workspace);
• limits on the file size you can download (10MB);
• no calendar view;
• incomplete checklist functionality.

Unlike most bug trackers, Trello doesn’t have custom fields. And there’s a simple explanation: Trello is not a niche-specific issue tracking software, but a tool widely used for task management in general. The entire interaction is built on cards, which, in turn, can have stored templates with formal fields for a bug description, links, applications, etc.

The whole process is based on a workspace where you can create columns and fill them with cards. These columns can correspond to the bug or development life cycles. For example:

To do ➔ In progress ➔ Fix ➔ Reviewing ➔ Checked ➔ Done.

Each card has a name. It allows you to add a cover, upload media, add a color label with a desired name, leave comments, and track the history of changes. You can also assign a responsible person for the card, add checklists and a due date.

There is such a great feature as Butler — a built-in no-code automation tool that automates tasks and workflows on boards. Butler offers several elements for automating actions: from adding buttons that start a chain of actions to trigger algorithms or dates built on the basis of rules and macros. No programming skills are required.

Among other things, Trello has integration with Slack (a corporate messenger) and allows you to send a history of changes to channels in the workspace.

However, even taking into account all the advantages, Trello’s capabilities won’t be enough for large projects with 100+ participants.

Trello for a QA Team

So, how exactly can you use Trello for QA needs? The simplest approach would be the following: a Test Manager creates a template card other team members later use for creating bug reports.

Pros:

• Simple and useful functionality.
• Minimalistic and user-friendly interface.
• No need to read long guides to start using.
• All actions take place in one window.
• Integration with software development services.
• iOS and Android applications.
• Suitable for startups and small projects.

Cons:

• With a large number of participants and tasks, a board turns into a mess.
• Cards don’t have clearly defined and convenient IDs.

Jira: Features And Functionality

Jira, like Trello, belongs to Atlassian. However, compared to Trello, Jira is a much more powerful bug tracking software. The system covers almost every need that may arise in project management and development. This is all thanks to a large number of integrations, roles, and many other functions.

The free version of Jira is a bit limited compared to the paid version and has a limit of 10 users. With such a team size, it is definitely better to choose Trello.

Jira was created primarily for large and technologically complex projects that involve several teams. This bug tracker is less user-friendly than Trello and has a lot more settings. At most, Jira may look like a pile of links, fields, and buttons at first glance. But, in this case, everything has a purpose. When you use Jira for bug tracking on a large project, it turns out that there is nothing superfluous. Quite the contrary, it’s sufficiently thought out from the point of view of functionality, a large number of roles, recording and reporting.

Jira for a QA Team

Unlike in Trello, the process is distributed on multiple screens, entailing different types of projects and boards. There are also several types of cards: Epic, Story, Task, Sub-Task, and Bug.

And now, let’s dig a little deeper into the bugs and structure of this type of card. A Jira ticket contains:

• unique and convenient identifier;
• name;
• description;
• attaching links to other tickets with an explanation;
• section with media attachment;
• information about the environment;
• comments.

An interesting distinctive Jira’s feature is the ability to allocate time for a task and log time spent on its completion. Also, in the Details section, there is:

• information about who created the ticket and who is assigned to the task;
• a field for GitHub integration;
• tags;
• severity;
• priority;
• affiliation with a sprint or system component;
• an additional section with custom fields;
• dates of creation and last update.

Jira has a built-in system for creating graphs and charts. It is based on data from cards and its JQL query language. The latter is quite flexible and useful when creating custom filters. As with Trello, Jira has an integration with Slack. Also, we need to mention Confluence. It’s a collaborative wiki tool that helps teams collaborate and share knowledge effectively.

Pros:

• Unique convenient ID card.
• Ability to create large task descriptions.
• Ability to build graphs using JQL.
• An integrated system for working with Confluence knowledge bases.
• Ability to customize the tracker to meet the needs of the team and the project.
• Suitable for large projects.
• iOS and Android applications.

Cons:

• Difficult to understand compared to Trello.
• Its setup takes a lot of time.
• High entry threshold for proper process setup.

Bottom Line

No wonder Trello and Jira are probably two of the most popular issue trackers out there. The primer, like an ordinary kitchen knife, attracts with its convenience and simplicity. The latter, like a Swiss Victorinox, has a solution for any situation within the IT project.

Thus, Atlassian meets the needs of both startups and large projects that involve several teams and require more flexible process settings.