How Mainspring Energy and SPK Standardized 30+ Jira Projects with Issue Templates Agent

[#1]

I work for Appsvio, the company behind Issue Templates Agent, and wanted to share a real customer story that might resonate with anyone managing Jira at scale.

If you've ever expanded Jira across dozens of projects, you've probably run into this: paragraph fields like Description sit empty by default, so people either leave them blank or fill them with whatever comes to mind. The usual fix, adding more custom fields, just trades one problem (missing details) for another (custom field bloat and harder admin).

Mainspring Energy ran into exactly this at ~30 active Jira projects. Working with their Atlassian Gold Solution Partner, SPK and Associates, they solved it by structuring the fields they already had instead of adding new ones: 25 templates across 22 fields, no new custom fields added.

Full story below. By the way, I'm curious how other admins here have handled the "add a field vs. guide the field" trade-off.

The Story

Mainspring Energy, a manufacturer of clean power generators, standardized data collection across 30+ active Jira projects, without adding a single new custom field. Guided by Atlassian Gold Solution Partner SPK and Associates, the team implemented Appsvio's Issue Templates Agent to solve a common scaling problem: as Jira usage grows across dozens of projects, free-form text fields tend to leave out the details teams need to start work, leading to missing information and constant follow-ups. Structured prompts, built directly into existing fields, closed that gap.

About Mainspring Energy

Mainspring Energy manufactures linear generators that convert fuel into electricity through a low-temperature, flameless reaction. Their modular systems supply onsite power for utilities, data centers, and commercial facilities. Capable of running on multiple fuels, including hydrogen, biogas, and natural gas, Mainspring provides low-emission energy to support modern power grids.

About SPK and Associates

SPK and Associates is an Atlassian Gold Solution Partner with over 20 years of experience supporting engineering and product development teams. Their relationship with Mainspring Energy began seven years ago, initially focused on CAD/PDM and PLM product development systems. As Mainspring expanded its operations, SPK took on Atlassian Application Management services. Today, SPK provides hands-on Jira administration, architectural guidance for integrations, and ongoing optimization of workflows across software and business teams.

The Challenge: Managing Unstructured Jira Fields and Custom Field Bloat

As Mainspring Energy expanded Jira to roughly 30 projects, collecting consistent information from users became difficult.

Important paragraph fields, such as the standard Description field, were blank by default. Without guided prompts, users submitted tickets with incomplete details. Engineering and IT teams had to pause work repeatedly to ask follow-up questions and gather missing context.

Creating additional custom fields could have added structure, but it also threatened to clutter Jira forms, complicate maintenance, and create custom field bloat. Mainspring needed a way to guide users without relying on generic default values or multiplying custom fields.

"We had paragraph fields (ex: description) that were open-ended, and people didn't know what to put in there. Templates gave structure and ideas for what to put in there. Fields can do that, but we don't need all of those fields, we already have so many." - highlights Mainspring Energy representative.

Main operational hurdles included:

• Incomplete Requests: Tickets were created without the technical details needed to start work.
• Administrative Delay: Team members spent time contacting submitters to clarify basic details.
• Form Complexity: Adding custom fields for every unique detail made Jira harder to administer and report on.

The Solution: Standardizing Workflows with Jira Issue Templates

To improve data entry without cluttering the system, SPK and Associates helped Mainspring evaluate and set up Issue Templates Agent by Appsvio.

SPK provided the hands-on administration required to build templates tailored to specific project needs. Instead of leaving users with a blank text box, the templates insert clear prompts, formatting guidelines, and instructions directly inside paragraph fields and custom fields.

Key elements of the setup:

• Guided Text Prompts: Added clear questions directly inside existing text areas to show submitters what information was required.
• Broad Implementation: Created 25 reusable templates covering 22 Jira fields across approximately 30 projects.
• Controlled Governance: Kept Jira screen configurations clean by structuring existing fields rather than building new ones.

The Results: High Data Integrity and Clean Jira Administration

Introducing structured templates changed how Mainspring collects and manages work items across its projects. Most importantly, it reduced the need for follow-up messages. Tickets now arrive with the necessary context from the start, allowing teams to begin work without waiting for missing details.

The change also simplified ticket creation for users, who no longer have to guess what information to include. On the administrative side, structuring existing fields within templates avoided the need for additional custom fields, keeping the Jira instance manageable. By standardizing inputs across all 30 projects, Mainspring established consistent data that makes tracking and reporting far more reliable.

"We don't have to reach out to people now to get more information or clarify. Users don't have to spend as much time coming up with what to put in the fields." - sums up the Mainspring representative.

For teams managing Jira at scale, the takeaway extends beyond this one setup. Custom field bloat is a common side effect of trying to fix data-quality problems in Jira - every additional field adds configuration overhead and makes screens harder to maintain across projects.

Structuring the fields that already exist, rather than multiplying them, gives administrators a way to guide users without that trade-off, keeping governance simple as Jira usage grows.

Standardize Your Jira Workflows

Issue Templates Agent brings clear guidance directly into your Jira forms, helping teams collect complete data from day one while keeping administration lean.

You can find it on the Atlassian Marketplace: Issue Templates Agent (fields, structure) for Jira.

[Kate Pawlak _Appsvio_]

Love seeing this one featured ❤️ As the Product Owner behind Issue Templates Agent, this case study genuinely makes my day.

Huge shoutout to SPK and Associates here 👏 This is exactly the kind of partnership that makes a real difference. When a solution partner like SPKAA really gets into the weeds with the customer, everyone wins: Mainspring gets an implementation that actually fits how they work, and we get to learn so much from how the app is used in the real world. Honestly, this kind of collaboration is one of my favorite parts of being in the Marketplace ecosystem.

And it's just really nice to see our app showing up in a story like this. It doesn't matter if it's a big company or a small team, or what industry they're in - messy, half-empty Jira tickets are a pain everyone knows. So seeing 30+ projects get standardized and teams stop chasing people for missing info... that's the whole reason we built this thing in the first place.

[Mia Tamm _Simpleasyty_]

Really interesting case study. Standardising 30+ projects without adding even more custom fields is probably the hardest part of this kind of setup.

@Kate Pawlak _Appsvio_ made a great point too — the real win is when the solution actually fits the way the customer works instead of just adding another layer of process.

The controlled governance approach here feels like the key part: reuse what already exists, guide people better, and keep the admin side manageable.

Nice example!