How should I set up Service Desk(s) in relation to JIRA Projects?

Question

We are new to JIRA and Service Desk. We have set up a Service Desk as a test, and a few Projects to see how they function.

Our division is how Service Desk and it's related Project relates to development projects.

We have two ways of thinking, and I am trying to figure which we should adopt.

My example here relates to the development of a website we manage.

1 - Set up a single "all purpose" Service Desk with it's associated Project. Set up a separate JIRA Project for development being accomplished for the website. When a request comes in to the Service Desk that kicks off a development issue, the issue is created in the JIRA project and manually linked to the Service Desk request. Both these issues then have their own workflow, history and status.

--OR--

2 - Set up a JIRA Project for the website, and attach a Service Desk to it. Both support requests and development issues both managed within the same project. This allows the Project manager to be able to see all issues that impact the project in one place. There is no need to link or maintain status and comments within two different Projects.  The downside is that the permissions are changed, and we'd have to have agent authority to manage issues.  This is not a deal breaker though by itself.

I have been reading a lot about how JIRA Projects should be created for single products. I have also looked at how Service Desk should be simplified for users to work with. I have not found any good explanation having to do with the relationship between Service Desk and JIRA Projects (development).

Raj Domala · Answer

I have the same confusion. But after quite a research I arrived at a conclusion.

Option 1 is what offered by Atlassian now.
Option 2 would be very useful (not as is, but with few tweaks).

Share your opinion as well.

Thanks!

MattS · Answer

The former.

Lindsay Barton · Answer

This is an interesting question. In general, it makes sense to keep Service Desk and development projects separate for three reasons.

* Clarity. Service Desk projects are intended for operations teams, working on operational issues; JIRA projects are intended for development work, bug tracking, and project management.
* Ease of use for Service Desk administrators. While it is certainly possible to map only a subset of the issue types in a Service Desk to request types in the customer portal, having work in the project that isn't Service Desk-specific will require more custom and thoughtful setup of SLAs, reports, etc.
* Visibility into issues / pricing. In order to view an issue in a Service Desk project, a user must either be a Service Desk agent or a Service Desk collaborator (or the reporter, who views the issue in the customer portal). Service Desk agents may be assigned issues, may transition issues, etc., while collaborators can't; and all agents must have both a JIRA license and a Service Desk agent license. So, if you have 100 devs but only 10 people who provide Service Desk-type help, having one project where your devs and your Service Desk employees work together will mean that you'll need 100 additional Service Desk agent licenses.

That being said, it sounds like you are using this Service Desk for a very determinate reason (questions about / development of your website).  If it is limited in scope enough, then you may be in a fine position to ignore the above three caveats and just use one project for both Service Desk-type work and development work.