Can't add customer as watcher with Jira software license

[Ashvin Patel]

We have Jira Software and Service Desk installed on the same server.  We have developers who have Jira Software license but are not agents on the Service Desk side.  These developers are all 'customers' of the project and are part of a group that is in the Service Desk Customer role.

We want to add some of these developers as watchers to some of the Service Desk tickets however, we are unable to add them and receive the following error:

"There was an error adding watcher... does not have permission to view this issue.  The user will not be added to the watch list."  We can add them as participants, but would like to add them as watchers.

[Andrew Laden · Accepted solution]

"Customer" is a special role that comes with Jira Service Desk. As a customer in a project, the user can only access the project via the customer portal. You could add them as a "Request Participant" to allow them to see an issue reported by someone else in their own customer portal.

To allow them to see the issue in a standard issue view. (and to be added as a watcher) then have to be in a role that gives them at least "Browse" permission to the project. (not just the Customer role) this makes them "collaborators" on an issues. a "Collaborator" is a user who can access the issue but is not a service desk agent. Collaborators can not make public comments on an issue, and can not transition the issue.

That said, there are some ... idiosyncrasies when having users who are both collaborators and customers, so you want to watch out for that.  

They would then of course be allowed to see any issue in the project. (which may or may not be what you want

[Ashvin Patel]

Thanks the reply Andrew.

As an example, we have our developers and Customer Support folks all in an organization as a "customer" so they can all see/view each other's tickets and be able to step in for someone if they are out for the day or something.

So, based on what you stated, how do I keep the ability for everyone on the CS team or the Dev teams to be able to view each others tickets but still be able to be added as watchers?  Based on what said, this is not possible, unless I read that completely wrong.

[Andrew Laden]

You can add roles to a Service Desk Project. You are not limited to the Service Desk Customer or Service Desk Agent role.

Roles in Service Desk projects are just like roles in Software projects.

So you can add your developers to the "Participant" role in the Service Desk project. They will then be able to see all tickets in that project. 

THere are 3 categories of users in Service Desk.

1: Agents. These are people who have an Service Desk license, and have access to the project via the Service Desk Agent role. They can do anything in the Project

2: Customer. These are people who do not have any jira license, and have access to the project via the "Service Desk Customer" role. They can only access the project via the customer portal. and can only see tickets for themselves, their organization, or ones they have been added as a request participant on. They can't be added as watchers because they don't have access to the standard jira interface.

3: Collaborators. These would be people who have a non-service desk jira license. (ie, a core or software license) and are a member of a role that would allow them to access the issue via the normal interface (ie in a role that has browse permission) They can look at the jira ticket via the standard interface, and make "internal" comments. They can not comment publicly, so the customer would not see their comments. they also can not transition the issue. So they can help the agent on the issue, but they can not "work" the issue. They can be added as watchers as long as they have browse permission on the issue.

(as a side issue, you can add your service desk agent licensed users to a software project. They would be able to see the project in the standard interface, but would not have access to "boards" or other development features)

See https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskserver/jira-applications-overview-939937270.html for more detail.