Allow permissions to user to perform a bulk import of user stories

Question

I have a scrum master who has Jira user permissions and needs to bulk import user stories into Jira. My questions are:

1. What permissions do I grant this scrum master, other than making them a Jira admin?

2. Where do I go specifically to grant these permissions?

3. What are my specific steps to accomplish this?

I was recently made the administrator of our Atlassian instance and new users and teams are being provisioned to create and manage projects in Jira. I have looked throughout other Community posts as well as online but I'm not finding step by step instructions. Thank you.

Naadira Sahar N_cp5531 · Answer

Hi Erick,

You generally do not need to make the Scrum Master a Jira Administrator to import user stories. The required permissions depend on the import method being used.

Option 1: CSV Import (Recommended)

If the Scrum Master will import user stories from a CSV file, they typically need:

* Create Issues permission in the target project
* Browse Projects permission in the target project
* Access to the project where the stories will be created
* In some cases, Project Administrator permissions can be helpful for field mapping and project configuration, but are not always required

Option 2: Bulk Operations After Import

If they will be performing bulk updates, moves, or edits after the import, they will also need:

* Bulk Change global permission

How to Grant the Permissions

Grant Project Permissions
1. Open Projects
2. Select the target project
3. Go to Project Settings → People
4. Add the Scrum Master to the project
5. Assign them a role such as Administrator, Developer, or a custom role that includes Create Issues permission

Grant Bulk Change Permission (if needed)
1. Go to Settings→ System
2. Select Global Permissions
3. Locate Bulk Change
4. Add the user or the group they belong to

Steps to Import User Stories via CSV
1. Prepare a CSV file containing fields such as:
  - Summary
  - Issue Type (Story)
  - Description
  - Priority
  - Assignee (optional)
2. Navigate to:
    Settings → System → External System Import → CSV
3. Upload the CSV file
4. Map the CSV columns to Jira fields
5. Select the target project
6. Review the import settings and run the import
7. Verify that the stories were created successfully in the backlog

One Important Note

For Jira Cloud, the ability to access External System Import is often restricted to Jira Administrators. If your Scrum Master cannot see the CSV Import option even after receiving project permissions, they may still require assistance from a Jira Admin to perform the import, or you may need to use a project-level import option if available in your Cloud plan.

Could you confirm whether you're using a company-managed project or a team-managed project? The exact permission steps differ slightly between the two.

Matteo Vecchiato · Answer

Hi @Erick Orr ,

Welcome to Atlassian community.

It is not necessary to make them a Jira admin.

You need to kind of permissions: global permission and space permission (for the specific space)

For bulk changes, you need to assign a global permission (Bulk change) to the user
Explanation here: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/permissions/overview#what-are-permissions-and-permission-schemes

Then, it is required to give permission at space level, through space permission scheme and space permissions.

There is an interesting tutorial here: https://community.atlassian.com/learning/lesson/jira-permission-scheme

But first, you need to detect which kind of space is: "company-managed" or "team-managed"

Here there is a difference if project is "company-managed" or "team-managed":

Company-managed:
User will require at least: browse project, Create work items, edit work items. Maybe Schedule permission. It depends on what data you have to bulk.
You can find a complete list of permissione here: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/types-of-permissions-you-can-grant-in-a-space-scheme/

Team-managed:
The logic is a bit different, you can have more detail here: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/next-gen-permissions/  and
https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/overview-of-permissions-in-team-managed-service-projects/

Hope it helps