Why It's Easy to Use SpiraTest & Rapise Together as a Unified System
We’ve seen firsthand how common it is for modern QA teams to struggle with the disconnect between test management and test automation. This split leads to excess overhead, complexity, and visibility gaps that teams like yours pay for in time and risk. Today, we’re exploring how SpiraTest and Rapise act more like a unified, cohesive testing tool than distinct (but integrated) platforms. While available separately for convenience and to fit your tech stack, they can seamlessly merge to eliminate traditional silos, centralizing all of your testing activities and documentation into a single, harmonized system and workflow.
What SpiraTest Does: Centralized Test Management
SpiraTest is an industry-leading platform for comprehensive test management. In other words, it helps organize and track every artifact across the QA process, from requirements and test cases to defects and release metrics. By centralizing this all in a single tool, it makes planning and organizing test plans by release, feature, or sprint much easier. It also maintains clear, end-to-end traceability, automatically linking requirements through test cases to associated defects.
On top of these critical features, it tracks bugs from both manual and automated test reports, and organizes key metrics with insightful dashboards to show real-time progress, project health, and trend analysis.
While this is the core of SpiraTest, it’s also designed to go beyond manual QA and act as a command center to orchestrate automation, which is where it ties to Rapise.
What Rapise Does: Cross-Platform Automated Testing
Rapise is our state-of-the-art automation engine that can create, execute, and maintain tests across a wide variety of platforms and technologies for more efficient QA. Whether you need web testing, mobile testing, desktop testing, or API testing, Rapise can easily run automated and manual tests across different browsers with a single script (no modification necessary).
It also provides the flexibility for users to record tests visually or detail scripts with JavaScript when needed. Rapise is great for complex interactions via data-driven and parameterized testing, but it shouldn’t live in a silo to only be used for creating and executing tests.
When Rapise is paired with SpiraTest, they seamlessly integrate to form a unified QA ecosystem rather than standalone test automation and test management tools.
The “Single System” Advantage
There is sometimes a misconception that Spira and Rapise operate independently or force users to jump between tools. However, this is not the case — when integrated, SpiraTeam and Rapise functionally act as one system for QA teams. For teams that pair them together, it seamlessly enables:
- Rapise test automation that is created, executed, and reported back directly into SpiraTest (no disconnected reporting or separate logging).
- Scheduling and remote test execution controlled from SpiraTest, so teams only need to define test sets once before they execute on multiple environments via Rapise.
- Dashboards, reports, and trace maps in SpiraTest that include both manual and automated results from Rapise, providing a unified, single source of truth.
“[...] the Protech QA team has been very happy with our experiences with Inflectra, Rapise / Spira, and the support team in particular. We had originally looked at using UFT / QTP because we had used it very successfully 8 to 10 years ago at Protech, back when it was in its prime. We are happy to have chosen the Rapise/Spira option instead, with all of the industry standard elements (Document Object Model, Xpath, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS).”
- Mike Becker & QA Team, Protech Associates, Inc.
Instead of QA teams switching between their test management tool and automation tool to complete cycles, Spira and Rapise truly form a single system for more integrated insights.
Challenges of Separate Test Management & Automation Tools
The primary reason that we designed Spira and Rapise in this way is because we’ve worked closely with QA teams of varying sizes and across many industries. One of the common hurdles we hear again and again is the frustration of using traditional separate systems, which cascade to cause technical and workflow pain points, such as:
- Lack of Traceability: When test automation results aren’t automatically linked back to the requirements or defects they pertain to, information and relationships can get lost, and manual stitching of evidence becomes time-consuming.
- Version Drift: As automated test scripts evolve independently of each other, it becomes impossible to know which script versions relate to which test plans.
- Duplicate Effort: Dealing with manual test case creation and subsequent automation often required rework or rewriting because there isn’t a shared source of truth.
- Complicated Reporting: Struggling to get unified metrics is a real challenge for QA teams bouncing back and forth between tools, because automation may report success in one tool, while management dashboards show outdated information.
In contrast, pairing SpiraTest and Rapise eliminates all of this because they function as a single system where automation is part of the test management lifecycle, not an add-on or afterthought. Even better, bundling Spira and Rapise is often more cost-effective than using separate tools for each and trying to budget for the additional plugins and features often required to match Inflectra’s capabilities.
“We are currently using Rapise with SpiraTeam to automate our regression test bed for Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP System [...] so we can launch our tests and record results. The Rapise tool has been easy to learn and quick to make progress on automating our regression test bed. We are very happy with the tool and the support that we have received from Inflectra.”
- Kevin D., Kent Corporation
How SpiraTest & Rapise Integrate Into a Unified, Monolithic Tool
To reiterate, the integration between Spira and Rapise isn’t superficial — it’s engineered to be a natural extension. Below, we’ll explore some specific ways that these tools combine to form a single platform that directly contributes to QA workflows and efficiency.
Creating Automated Tests from Manual Test Cases
One of the most powerful ways that our partners leverage Spira and Rapise together is by basing automation on existing manual test definitions stored in SpiraTest. Instead of engineers having to reinvent workflows from scratch, Rapise makes it easy to generate automation scripts that immediately mirror the structure and intent of manual test steps defined in SpiraTest.
The close integration also means that those scripts are automatically linked to the corresponding test case, so each automated test perfectly aligns with its source requirement from the Spira repository. This unified system can also report results back at the test step level, providing devs and QA members with precise insights into which part of the workflow passed or failed.
Saving & Versioning Rapise Tests in SpiraTest
While some teams with disconnected tools may store automated test scripts in local folders or disparate version control systems, the combined ecosystem of Rapise and Spira enables tests to be pushed straight into the central repository with full version control. This means that every team member can see which version of a Rapise test is associated with each test case, as well as a clear history of changes for auditing or rollback purposes. When a tester edits an automated script locally, those changes are synced back to SpiraTest via the built-in dashboard, so no one has to worry about working off outdated copies. When it comes to this file synchronization, Spira’s integration automatically handles the logic so you don’t have to manually manage merging or pushing updates.
Scheduling & Remote Execution of Automated Tests
A key distinction between SpiraTest and other test management integrations is that it doesn’t simply store automation, it actively orchestrates it. In simpler terms, teams can schedule test sets to run at specific times or recurring intervals, directly from Spira. They can also assign these tests to automation hosts, such as individual machines or virtual environments, and execute them without human intervention. The unified system then automatically retrieves execution results (screenshots, logs, individual test step outcomes, etc.) once each run is complete. Doing all of this and more from the combined system of Rapise and Spira working together enables management of larger automated test labs globally from your SpiraTest instance.
Parameterization & Parallel Execution
In order to maximize testing coverage across all of the necessary environments, data sets, and devices, the integration of Spira and Rapise supports more advanced execution techniques. Teams can incorporate parameterized testing by defining multiple input values or configurations that are passed into a single testing script, generating multiple execution instances with distinct data sets. It’s also easy to set up parallel execution where multiple automation hosts run different parts of the test set at the same time, effectively increasing throughput and enabling faster regression suite completion. The combined capabilities of SpiraTest and Rapise working together dramatically reduce the maintenance burden of automation while increasing the overall test coverage (without increased complexity).
Synchronization & Collaboration Workflows
Lastly, this monolithic and unified system supports and enables far more robust team workflows. Not only can multiple QA engineers and developers collaborate without stepping on each other’s changes, but local edits in Rapise are synced to SpiraTest with just a few clicks. The result is less time spent managing test assets and more time focusing on quality improvements. This collaboration extends further to encompass reporting and defect workflows, too. Automation failures can automatically create or link defects in Spira, tying all related artifacts together for more contextualized workflows. Instead of relying on a fractured set of tools, SpiraTest and Rapise transform into one collaborative QA ecosystem where everything from test planning to test results lives in a shared context.
“True software excellence happens when strategy and execution are unified. Spira provides the structured backbone for requirements, risk, and test management, while Rapise delivers powerful, scalable automation across today’s most complex technologies. When they work together seamlessly, organizations gain complete traceability from requirement to release—transforming quality from a checkpoint into a continuous, intelligent discipline.”
- Adam Sandman, CEO at Inflectra
Benefits of SpiraTest & Rapise’s Unified Workflow
We’ve covered how the combined system of Spira and Rapise supports business workflows, but what about the concrete impact on work efficiency?
End-to-End Traceability
Because all of your cases and runs are executed and stored in this combined system, it provides true traceability. Not only is every requirement linked through to its test case(s), but each test run is tied back to specific artifacts and defects link back into the trace matrix. This traceability is unmatched by distinct test management and test automation tools, giving your team a more accurate picture of test coverage and quality.
Centralized Version Control
Combining Rapise with SpiraTest to create this unified platform also ensures that all automated scripts are versioned alongside your manual artifacts. This makes it easy for teams to work with the latest test assets while preserving and being able to audit change history. As a result, there’s no need for a separate version control system to manage automated test scripts, reducing your maintenance overhead and costs.
Remote Execution & Scheduling Flexibility
By having all of your testing activities and documentation in one place, it’s easier than ever to run tests overnight or around releases without manual intervention. By distributing execution across multiple environments and hosts (via Rapise’s capabilities), it frees up QA engineer time from repetitive execution tasks so they can focus more on analysis and strategy with SpiraTest’s tools.
Unified Metrics & Reporting
We briefly touched on this earlier, but one aspect of separate tools that teams often underestimate is the disconnect in reporting metrics and performance indicators. SpiraTest and Rapise work together to collect and organize execution data that informs dashboards with unified and comparable data to clearly show overall QA health. They seamlessly mix manual and automated test results and also produce executive-ready analytics without having to haphazardly stitch together information from separate tools.
Embedded Control in Rapise UI
We’ve highlighted how testers can use SpiraTest to orchestrate actions in Rapise, but because our platforms are so closely tied together, Rapise actually includes an embedded Spira dashboard as well. This enables users to create and schedule tests directly from the automation environment. It also makes it easy to view execution history or upcoming schedules from your testing interface, without switching tools. This blending of features across the integrated system strengthens the unified feel so users can stay in a single interface without losing visibility or functionality.
CI/CD Integration Options
Because Spira acts as the central orchestrator and command center for automation and scheduling, it is also the perfect CI/CD pipeline connector. Build completions can trigger tests, Rapise automations can run as part of regression gates, and results automatically feed back into release dashboards without requiring additional tooling. All of this makes continuous testing central to the framework and workflow instead of an afterthought to “make it work” with less-than-ideal tools.
Upgrade Your Testing & QA Suite to Inflectra
By design, Rapise and SpiraTest feel like one ecosystem, not two disconnected tools integrated via an API. By using both platforms together, teams gain access to unified planning, execution, and reporting. They also benefit from centralized artifact control and traceability, as well as automation that scales across environments without exponential overhead.
Instead of the headaches of integration gaps and stitching tools together, Inflectra offers a unified solution for QA teams that forms a single, monolithic workflow to support all testing activities. It offers more clarity and control than other options and is the ideal system to streamline quality engineering and reduce toolchain complexity. Ready to learn more about our platforms? Browse the resources and links below:
