{"slug": "smartbears-bearq-adds-sources-to-find-coverage-gaps-and-workflows-to-automate", "title": "SmartBear’s BearQ adds Sources to find coverage gaps and Workflows to automate test runs", "summary": "SmartBear Software Inc. released two new capabilities for its BearQ agentic quality assurance system, Sources and Workflows, which pull requirements and bug reports from Atlassian's Jira and existing test coverage from SmartBear's Reflect and Zephyr tools to identify coverage gaps, then chain test jobs behind a single trigger such as a build landing in the CI/CD pipeline. The company said trust was the top barrier to adopting or scaling autonomous testing, named by 23% of the 1,436 U.S. and U.K. respondents in a survey SmartBear released Sept. 30. BearQ first appeared in March with early access for web applications built by midmarket SaaS providers, and a September update made it an assignable agent inside Jira; SmartBear counts about 32,000 organizations using its software.", "body_md": "### SmartBear’s BearQ adds Sources to find coverage gaps and Workflows to automate test runs\n\nSoftware testing company [SmartBear Software Inc.](https://smartbear.com/) is pushing its BearQ agentic quality assurance system beyond test automation with two new capabilities released today.\n\nBoth additions target the part of quality assurance that artificial intelligence has made more difficult by speeding up coding. SmartBear calls them Sources and Workflows.\n\nAutomating individual tests is no longer the bottleneck, in the company’s telling. The tougher job now is working out what still needs testing across sprawling systems, much of it already covered by tests sitting in other tools.\n\nSources widens BearQ’s view past the application itself. Requirements and bug reports now flow in from Atlassian Corp.’s Jira so the agent knows what ought to be tested. SmartBear’s own Reflect and Zephyr testing tools show what existing tests already cover. BearQ draws on that context to find gaps in coverage before it writes anything new, so teams end up with fewer duplicate tests.\n\nWorkflows picks up from there, letting a team chain jobs together behind a single trigger. Once a build lands in the continuous integration and delivery pipeline, for example, BearQ can spin up a test environment and run regression tests against it. Whatever the run turns up goes back into the team’s connected systems, and anyone who would rather not tie testing to builds can put the same sequence on a schedule. How much of a workflow runs without human review is up to the team.\n\nProgressive autonomy is SmartBear’s name for that arrangement. Teams begin with people signing off on what BearQ does, then hand over more of the process as their confidence grows. Trust was the top barrier to adopting or scaling autonomous testing, named by 23% of the 1,436 U.S. and U.K. respondents in a survey SmartBear [released Sept. 30](https://smartbear.com/news/news-releases/state-of-software-quality-testing-2026/).\n\nBridges Smith, vice president of product management for AI at SmartBear, called autonomous testing “the first step.” By Smith’s account, the bigger opportunity is connecting how an application actually behaves with what a team intends it to do and the test suite it has built up. People would still set the guardrails, Smith said, describing the shift as a move “beyond autonomous testing toward autonomous quality.”\n\nSmartBear has been building BearQ out since it first appeared [in March](https://smartbear.com/news/news-releases/smartbear-introduces-bearqautonomous-testing-for/), when the company opened early access for web applications built by midmarket software-as-a-service providers. A [September update](https://www.financialcontent.com/article/bizwire-2026-9-16-smartbears-bearq-agent-powers-autonomous-testing-in-jira) made it an assignable agent inside Jira. SmartBear’s older lineup includes the Swagger tools for designing application programming interfaces, and about 32,000 organizations use its software, by the company’s count.\n\nMore Sources connections are due before the quarter ends. Both features get a [public demonstration Thursday](https://smartbear.com/lp/from-ai-chaos-to-connected-software-quality/) in a livestream with “Project Hail Mary” author Andy Weir.\n\n##### Image: SmartBear\n\n# A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:\n\nSupport our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. **Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network**, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.\n\n- **15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos** , powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more\n- **11.4k+ theCUBE alumni** — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network\n\n### Are you an AWS customer?  Support SiliconANGLE financially by buying your AWS services from our Marketplace portal page and links: [https://siliconangle.com/aws-marketplace/](https://siliconangle.com/aws-marketplace/)\n\n##### **About SiliconANGLE Media**\n\n[SiliconANGLE](https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsiliconangle.com%2F&esheet=54119777&newsitemid=20240910506833&lan=en-US&anchor=SiliconANGLE&index=9&md5=646b1b564e2259100a2b8638aab0a552),\n\n[theCUBE Network](https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecube.net%2F&esheet=54119777&newsitemid=20240910506833&lan=en-US&anchor=theCUBE+Network&index=10&md5=7de2a85f95ab4a4a495cede20b8cb1da),\n\n[theCUBE Research](https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fthecuberesearch.com%2F&esheet=54119777&newsitemid=20240910506833&lan=en-US&anchor=theCUBE+Research&index=11&md5=7bb33676722925eb57d588ec343e4f6f),\n\n[CUBE365](https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cube365.net%2F&esheet=54119777&newsitemid=20240910506833&lan=en-US&anchor=CUBE365&index=12&md5=d310fb35919714e66ad8d42c9c0c1bc6),\n\n[theCUBE AI](https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecubeai.com%2F&esheet=54119777&newsitemid=20240910506833&lan=en-US&anchor=theCUBE+AI&index=13&md5=b8b98472f8071b23ebb10ab9a8dd0683)and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.\n\nFounded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/smartbears-bearq-adds-sources-to-find-coverage-gaps-and-workflows-to-automate", "canonical_source": "https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/20/smartbears-bearq-adds-sources-to-find-coverage-gaps-and-workflows-to-automate-test-runs/", "published_at": "2026-10-20 12:01:59+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-20 12:17:11.396047+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-tools", "developer-tools", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["SmartBear Software Inc.", "BearQ", "Sources", "Workflows", "Atlassian Corp.", "Jira", "Bridges Smith", "Andy Weir"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/smartbears-bearq-adds-sources-to-find-coverage-gaps-and-workflows-to-automate", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/smartbears-bearq-adds-sources-to-find-coverage-gaps-and-workflows-to-automate.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/smartbears-bearq-adds-sources-to-find-coverage-gaps-and-workflows-to-automate.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/smartbears-bearq-adds-sources-to-find-coverage-gaps-and-workflows-to-automate.jsonld"}}