Several attributes of a Feature as well as its text become searchable using JQL. Being able to search for attributes can be particularly useful for improving your Sprint and Backlog Jira boards.
Search for Feature Text
The name of the field that you need to use is 'Feature.content'. Navigate to the Search for Issues page and use the '~' (tilde) character to search for the required text.
Depending on your preferences menu options the Feature panel might be loaded in Gherkin Text Editor mode rather than Example Mapping, so you will see textual representation rather like below.
Search for Feature Attributes
The following list of attributes becomes searchable with JQL:
Feature.userStories
Type - Number
Description: how many User Stories the Feature contains. A User Story in this case means that there are 3 common keywords: ‘As a', ‘I want to’ and ‘So that’ after the Feature keyword and there is some text after each of these keywords. 'In order to’ keyword can be used instead of ‘So that’.
Feature.userStories = 0
Could be used to identify Jira issues that have some Feature text but are missing key pieces of information such as who the user or the stakeholder is for whom the story is valuable and/or why exactly the story is needed.
Feature.userStories > 1
Could be used to identify Features that contain more than User Story and therefore should be split into further Jira issues.
Feature.questions
Type - Number
Description: total number of questions the Feature contains. Questions are comment lines prefixed with “Q:“ keyword, see more in Questions & Answers.
Feature.questions = 0
Could be used to identify Jira issues that are potentially completely clear to the development team and therefore ready to go into the Sprint Backlog or maybe those which have not been discussed yet at all.
Feature.unansweredQuestions
Type - Number
Description: total number of unanswered questions, i.e. those that do not have the 'A:' keyword on line below, see more in Questions & Answers.
Feature.unansweredQuestions > 0
Could be used to identify Jira issues that need further information before they could be developed.
Combine attributes
You can combine Feature attributes in the same search query to give you more precise results
Feature.questions > 0 AND Feature.unansweredQuestions = 0
Could be used to better identify Jira issues that have been discussed with the team and have had all the questions answered and perhaps are ready to go into the Sprint backlog.
Feature.rules
Type - Number
Description: total number of Rules the Feature contains. There needs to be some text after the Rule keyword in order for the Rule to count towards this number.
Feature.rules > 0
Could be used to find Jira issues which have at least some Acceptance Criteria entered. Rules in Features files essentially are the acceptance criteria.
Feature.leastScenariosInRule
Type - Number
Description: lowest number of Scenarios contained in any Rule inside the overall Feature.
Feature.leastScenariosInRule = 0
Could be used to find Issues where there is at least one Rule without any Scenarios
This same query will also include any issues where there is a Rule with Scenarios however there is no text after the Rule keyword (i.e. an empty Rule card), meaning the Rule is not defined yet.
Feature.mostScenariosInRule
Type - Number
Description: highest number of Scenarios contained in any Rule inside the overall Feature.
Feature.mostScenariosInRule > 5
Could be used to find Issues where there are perhaps too many Scenarios in a Rule which could mean that some of the examples could be potentially moved under a new not yet captured rule.
Feature.scenarios
Type - Number
Description: total number of Scenarios the Feature contains. All valid scenario keywords are taken into account i.e. Scenario, Example, Scenario Outline or Scenario Template.
Feature.scenarios = 0
Could be used to find Jira issues that do not yet have any examples of behaviour
Feature.
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