Can I have 2 instances of JIRA communicate with each other?

Question

I currently have JIRA for CM purposes, we use quality center as a test management too and am thinking of switching Quality Center to Zephyr as an add on to JIRA; however, what CM has in the common fields we will be sharing in jira isn't necessarily what I need for testing purposes.  So the thought is to have a second instance of Jira, so that whatever I change or modify doesnt alter the CM process the project has.

I know workflows can be assigned by issue types and all that is no problem.  The problem is the sharing of the common fields.  If i get a second instance of JIRA, would I be able to communicate with the other instance of JIRA we already have?  This would be important for traceability purposes.

thoughts?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted Answer

Well, you'll be able to link them to refer to each other, but you won't be sharing field data.

However, you probably don't really need a separate instance.  If your two groups can agree on using a common list of Priorities and Resolutions, then everything else can be separated out (There are workarounds for the resolution sharing as well, and Atlassian have "priorities by project" on the list)