Creating JIRA issues using multiple service accounts for different spaces

[Angelica Pauli]

Hi,

We have a requirement to create JIRA issues from ServiceNow. We already have an existing sevice account in JIRA and the integration was already in place. However, it is for a different project from what we handles.

We are considering using a different service account to create JIRA issues and access our projects/spaces in JIRA. Do you recommended this approach? What could be the pros and cons of this in JIRA? Thank you.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Angelica Pauli 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

I see that you posted a related question on this article:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-Cloud-Admins-articles/A-Guide-to-Service-Accounts-in-Atlassian-Cloud-Part-2-Setting-up/ba-p/3185888

Here is my opinion.

Cons:

- The burden on your Org Admins to track and regenerate tokens for multiple service accounts

Pros:

- adhering to least-privilege mindset by having any given service account granted access to only one project. If you have one account with access to all projects, then anybody who has the token could get access to data they should not be able to access.

So, what is more important to your company - low maintenance or higher security?

[Angelica Pauli]

Hi @Trudy Claspill ,

Thank you for responding to my query.

If we are to add just 1 more service account, we can still have higher security without putting too much burden for Org admins, right?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Angelica Pauli 

Going from 1 account to 2 seems reasonable. Going from 1 to 10 might even seem reasonable to your Org Admins. I suggest you talk with them about what they think a reasonable number is.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Accepted solution]

Hello @Angelica Pauli 

Yes for one additional integration, that sounds like a reasonable approach.

It gives you cleaner separation and keeps permissions tighter, especially if that account only needs access to your Jira projects. At the same time, one extra service account is usually still manageable, so this feels like a good middle ground.

The only real downside is a bit more admin work around permissions and token management.

Small suggestion? if you are setting up a new integration now, also check whether you can use OAuth 2.0 for the service account.

[Angelica Pauli]

Thank you for your inputs @Arkadiusz Wroblewski !

[Dhiren Notani_Exalate_]

Hi @Angelica Pauli ,

Yes, using a separate service account per integration/project is generally a good approach, especially in your case where different teams/projects are involved.

Pros:

• Better access control – you can limit permissions only to the required projects
• Clear audit trail – easier to track which integration created/updated issues
• Isolation – changes or failures in one integration won’t impact others
• Security – avoids over-permissioning a single global account

Cons:

• More management overhead – multiple accounts, tokens, and credentials to maintain
• Configuration duplication – similar setups may need to be repeated
• Credential rotation effort – needs to be handled per account

In practice, most teams prefer separate service accounts for cleaner governance and troubleshooting.

Also, just to understand your setup better — how is the integration currently happening between ServiceNow and Jira? (custom API scripts, middleware, or a tool?)

If you’re managing mappings, permissions, and logic manually, applications like Exalate can simplify this quite a bit — especially when you need to control what data is synced per project without tightly coupling both systems.

Thanks, Dhiren