7 Silent Jira Service Management Killers. Are They Hiding in Your Project?

[#1]

Hi JSM folks 😊 Wanted to share a recent observation from our work with Jira Service Management teams.

We’ve rebuilt a lot of Jira Service Management setups over the years—across IT, security, support, and ops. Big orgs, small teams. Doesn't matter.

And what we’ve noticed is this:

The same 7 problems show up again and again. 

Even in mature environments. Even when everything seems to be working.

They’re the kind of issues that creep in slowly and quietly wreck things:
👎 ticket volume gets harder to manage
👎 agents feel burned out
👎 customers stop using the portal
👎 reporting gets muddy
👎 admins get scared to change anything

Here’s a breakdown of what we call the

7 silent JSM killers — and how you can start spotting them in your own setup:

❌ 1. Frankenstein Projects

Multiple teams squeezed into one project “for simplicity.”
👉 Result? Messy workflows, shared automations, clashing SLAs, and confused customers.

❌ 2. Wasted JSM Features

You’re paying for things like Incident, Change, and Problem management—but nobody’s using them.
👉 Instead, everything looks like a service request. No triage. No visibility.

❌ 3. Automation Overload

Too many rules. No ownership.
👉 Nobody knows what’s triggering what, and admins are afraid to touch anything.

❌ 4. Portal Decision Fatigue

20+ request types. Vague labels. Redundant forms.
👉 Customers don’t know what to click—so they email instead.

❌ 5. Portal Ghost Town

The portal exists, but nobody uses it.
👉 Tickets come in via email or Slack, missing key info and killing reporting.

❌ 6. No CSAT, No Pulse

If you’re not measuring satisfaction—even passively—you’re flying blind.
👉 And you’ll miss small issues that snowball into big ones.

❌ 7. No Virtual Agent

Playbooks and automation potential just sitting there.
👉 Agents waste time on “reset my password” type tasks instead of solving real problems.

If you’ve spotted one (or more) of these in your setup, you’re not alone.

Also, would you add something to the list? 

Best!

Celina

[Aaron Geister _Trundl_]

I think you read my thoughts and words right out my mouth. Very well done and thank you for sharing.

[Silvia Davis]

Hi @Celina Thank you for sharing! Here is the link of the JSM What is new webinar: AI and Ops insights - where we show many AI capabilities that will help a ton with several items above! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Silvia