SmartBear has integrated its BearQ autonomous testing agent into Atlassian Jira to provide engineering teams with an assignable system that validates running applications directly inside existing issue queues.
Engineering groups increasingly deploy software-writing agents to accelerate release cycles, yet quality assurance teams often struggle with expanding backlogs. SmartBear designed the tool as an assignable specialist that evaluates live functionality rather than raw source code.
Dan Faulkner, CEO at SmartBear, said: “Developers are using AI to create and ship code faster than ever, but testing is falling behind because it’s often manual and constrained by brittle automation that cannot keep pace.
“Not only is there more to test, but it’s increasingly hard to know what to test. BearQ addresses those challenges so QA can keep up with today’s fast-moving codebases. We’re pleased to deepen our work with Atlassian and Jira.”
Autonomous execution across running application workflows
The platform evaluates functional software builds rather than testing against outdated scripts or static specifications.
The agent navigates running software instances in the manner of an end-user; it steps through real flows, exercises edge cases, and verifies operational behaviour across complete application architectures. Testing covers the entire application rather than only lines altered in recent commits.
Alan Braun, Head of Product Ecosystem at Atlassian, commented: “Jira is where work gets defined, and assignable agents help carry it out across the SDLC. BearQ is built specifically for testing, exploring the application the way a person would, rather than solely reviewing the code underneath it.
“As testing grows more complex, that’s what helps teams ship faster and safer.”
Beth Barton, Lead of Product Coordination and Quality Assurance at Simon Property Group, added: “BearQ has become a valuable part of our testing process. It helps uncover gaps, edge cases, and potential risks across our application that can easily be missed in traditional exploratory testing.
“By broadening our test coverage and surfacing new test ideas, it has strengthened both the quality and efficiency of our testing efforts. Its exploratory power has made testing not just more thorough, but genuinely more enjoyable.”
Governed autonomy controls and Zephyr reporting
When assigned a Jira ticket, BearQ interprets the technical scope of new product features and dynamically updates test routines around actual user journeys. This automation limits routine script maintenance for human engineers.
Autonomy levels remain configurable. Development managers set specific oversight thresholds to ensure human supervisors review decisions before software moves forward.
Team interaction operates through familiar Atlassian collaboration mechanics. Developers can assign tasks directly to BearQ, mention the agent in ticket discussions to request testing help, and insert it into automatic status transitions without manual command executions or workspace changes.
Test records flow directly into Zephyr, SmartBear’s testing system of record for Jira. Quality teams can instruct BearQ to log test sequences and operational results within Zephyr repositories. This integration maintains auditable compliance records across fast-moving development pipelines.
SmartBear introduced BearQ in March to protect application integrity as agentic coding tools alter enterprise software development lifecycles.
See also: PractiTest turns software QA data into a release readiness score
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