Impacts of Uninstalling Jira ServiceDesk Cloud

Question

I inherited the administration of an instance of Jira Cloud which had the ServiceDesk plugin installed. After some review, we discovered that a simple Jira project would have met their needs - they weren't using any of the features of Jira ServiceDesk. The former folks with admin permissions who installed the plugin didn't really administer Jira. No thought was put into the impact of the installation. No documentation. Possible they've reused behind the scenes content as part of other Jira core projects too.

At this point I need to uninstall the plugin, but given the haphazard manner in which Jira Cloud and ServiceDesk were used... I'd like to understand what impacts this will have. Is anyone aware of any documentation at all that discussed what happens when Service Desk is uninstalled? Looking for details of what admin configurations will disappear. I'm already planning to take measures to export the data in the single SD project to preserve it. Would also accept installation documentation if it detailed out what fields/issue types/workflows/etc. are part of ServiceDesk! I've searched and can't find anything... at this point I feel I will need to resort to a stare & compare process of the admin config screens and look for descriptions that say 'installed by Jira ServiceDesk'.

Any online resources anyone can provide would be very beneficial! TIA!

Andrea Urban_u1jyll · Answer

hahaha... yes inheritance of this nature is proving to be a challenge! When I say ServiceDesk plugin, I assumed it was an Atlassian add-on app from the Marketplace installed after we signed up for Atlassian Cloud/Jira. Unfortunately, our system audit logs had aged off so I can't tell. I can look back through the history of our bills and see we weren't billed for it right away.

I think you're saying no app was installed from the Marketplace and simply creating the project type turned on the functionality - therefore we began getting billed right away (give or take a trial period). By this logic, if I turn off our licenses, then I don't really need to worry if a configuration, such as the impact field or change issue type, are used by another regular Jira project. That would suffice as 'turning off' and stopping the billing.

I was worried that by somehow turning off the functionality that it would delete ServiceDesk specific fields/issue types/workflows. If I couldn't identify this up front then I'd be breaking some things...

Mike Bowen · Answer

Hi @Andrea Urban

Don't you hate inheritance of the software kind. ;-)

I am not entirely sure what you mean by the ServiceDesk plugin.

Jira Service Desk is just another project type in Jira Core. When adding a project one is asked to install a Kanban style project or a Classic Software project or a Service Desk project.

My suggestion for you is to leave your current service desk as is for now and go ahead and install a new project (a classic service desk) and run it side by side.

This will give you a chance to learn the new project, set it up as you wish and to document every step of the way if you are that way inclined.

It also allows you to set up some test accounts, test customers and TEST everything without affecting your existing customers or users.

The biggest advantage is that there is no impact on your existing set up.

Here is a link to the Jira Service Desk Documentation page. It will list all the topics you need and are relatively easy to follow.

Failing finding the help you need in those documents, ping us on here and we will help where possible.

.Mike