Jira 7 - Core/Software/JSD

[J. Caldwell]

I'm going to get it out of the way and say "I haven't tried it yet in a test environment..." because I'm reading docs and I'm unclear on some things.

So...is JIRA Software (formerly Agile) still a plugin? Is "JIRA Core" basically just the old vanilla JIRA Server?

We run multiple JIRA instances for BU specific customers. Sometimes folks just want vanilla JIRA and then later on, a dev team in their area moves from one instance to another, so then we need to add JIRA Software/Agile to that instance. Before we would just buy the plugin and slap it in and away we go. Are we talking about a difference now in how that happens where we need to have to re-deploy the app instead of just iteratively adding to it? I am unclear based on the documentation how it all works. JSD seems straightforward still as it is just a plugin. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

>So...is JIRA Software (formerly Agile) still a plugin? Is "JIRA Core" basically just the old vanilla JIRA Server?

Well, no.  But yes.  Sort of.

JIRA Core is pretty much JIRA Server without any add-ons.  JIRA Agile and Service Desk are now "applications" rather than add-ons.  They are more tightly integrated into the core than other add-ons (although you won't really notice that apart from the way users are handled, and the licencing stuff).  The distrubutables of "Software" and "Service Desk" are JIRA Core with the relevant application pre-installed, but there's no real difference between downloading JIRA Core and then going "oh, let's enable Software/SD as an application", waiting for them to install and licencing them.

[J. Caldwell]

So...are we talking about something more like Fisheye/Crucible, where adding a license turns functionality on/off? Here's what happens and why I'm really concerned about this change. A BU starts using Jira Core. 6 months down the line, there dev team moves into that instance and wants Agile. Do I now have to re-deploy the application using the "jira software" package? What happens in 3 months if they add JSD? I have to re-deploy the whole application again? What happens if they decide to step down to just "core"? I have to redeploy again? That's a lot of time spent in test and if something goes wrong, it isn't just a "disable the plugin" or "pull it back", its a "roll the whole damned app back." Likewise, if I want to add a bit that comes with a more recent version of Agile, I'm not upgrading a plugin...I'm upgrading the whole app, which again, not efficent use of my time. As always Nic....thanks for taking the time.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's the bit about "let's enable X as an application" that matters here. It's not the same as add-ons, but it's similar. If you suddenly want to stop using the Software functions, remove the user's access to it. (I think you can turn them off too, but I've not tried)

[J. Caldwell]

Yeah...I'm going to have to play around with my home instance over the weekend to see. I've also cut a ticket to Atlassian for clarification.

[William Crighton [CCC]]

Hey Nic - Thanks for the clarification. Could you cite any web pages for specifics here? We've attended the early release informative sessions and were still walking around today asking each other these very same questions (full disclosure mode here in Austin I guess). Anyway, if you have any links to atlassian pages please add them if you have time, but regardless thanks for your answer! Good day man -wc

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yeah, that's the problem, and why I'm so hesitant - I've got the same links you've seen and a little bit of conversation with colleagues. I don't think any of the Atlassian docs are good at explaining what's happening. ... although Dave Meyer's answers to some specific questions here are *much* better.

[J. Caldwell]

Nic - Are you referring to another string or ?

[William Crighton [CCC]]

@Nic Brough [Adaptavist] - Thanks for the info about Dave's answers. I'll take a look -wc

[Dave Meyer]

Jumping in here: I think Nic's summary is pretty accurate. If you're already a JIRA customer, then it's probably easiest to understand JIRA Core as just plain vanilla JIRA. The key thing to understand is that by separating out JIRA Software, JIRA Service Desk, and JIRA Core as separate products, it will allow us to make investments in simplifying JIRA Core and making it more accessible for non-technical users. You can add JIRA Software to a JIRA Core instance. You can add JIRA Service Desk to a JIRA Software instance. You can add an additional license for JIRA Core-only users along side your JIRA Software license in the same instance. The best way to get a sense of how this works might be to run an evaluation of any JIRA 7 distribution and check out the new "Versions & licenses" page. So to directly answer your question @J. Caldwell, imagine you started off with a BU using JIRA Core with 100 users. Then the dev team wants to join and wants JIRA Software features (what used to be in JIRA Agile and more). You can add JIRA Software for 50 users to your existing JIRA instance. So now you have a JIRA Core license for 100 users and a JIRA Software license for 50 users. That's 150 users total with access to JIRA. Any of the 50 users with JIRA Software access can create software projects and access JIRA Software (Agile) features. Then you can repeat the process with JSD down the road. You don't have to re-deploy the whole application. Adding JIRA Software or JIRA Service Desk to an existing JIRA instance is more or less the same as installing a plugin. Eventually we will release updates that will require you to upgrade the embedded JIRA Core version. In the case above, if you wanted to backtrack and go back to JIRA Core, the Versions & licenses page allows you to uninstall JIRA Software or JIRA Service Desk and optionally remove the license and configuration. You can also disable and enable specific component plugins of the applications via the UPM, although I wouldn't recommend this unless you really know what you're doing. Lastly, it's not quite like FishEye/Crucible where the license unlocks the functionality. In order for JIRA Software to run, the JIRA Software OBR package needs to be installed (which you can do automatically via the Versions & licenses page, like starting a trial of an add-on) or manually by uploading the OBR package (which you can get by following the "Already have JIRA Service Desk or JIRA Core" link here: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/update). You can also uninstall an application without actually removing the license, which could prove useful for debugging. So to wrap up, we're trying to offer the best of both worlds. Integrated applications that feel like full end-to-end experiences (not just JIRA plus add-ons), but still give you the flexibility to install, update, enable/disable, etc that you're already used to with JIRA. As I said, the best way may just to explore the Versions & licenses page in an evaluation yourself. Hope this helps! Sorry to be missing you at Summit.

[William Crighton [CCC]]

@Dave Meyer - They should present your response @ Summit 2015. That's the most comprehensive and logical response I've seen about the whole Atlassian JIRA 7 Campaign. Thank you! ...of course, there's still some _questions_ - like can you install Service Desk on JIRA Core or does it require JIRA Software first? But that deserves it's own question. Good day man, thanks for the post.

[J. Caldwell]

@Dave Meyer Thanks for the response. I second @William Crighton [CCC] 's comment of making sure this gets into Summit someway as it is a much clearer explanation then what I found in the Jira 7 Hub page.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

If only we could +1 comments :-) (or +lots for Dave's)

[J. Caldwell]

I think @Dave Meyer should talk to the Confluence Questions PM to ask for an enhancement. :)

[William Crighton [CCC]]

@J. Caldwell - I think they actually work better / are addressed more rapidly when they come from end users - not experts, not vendors, not resellers - but the customers. Of course you could spit in any direction and hit scores of customers who would have no trouble taking argument with that statement...I guess as in most things, YMMV. -wc Capital City Consultants