Does anyone use all 3 JIRA Core, Software & Service Desk "linked" together?

Question

Hello,

I'm investigating JIRA as a possible solution for my teams.  I'm thinking we would want/need Service Desk to manage on-going IT maintenance request & customer service items/tickets, and then also use Software to manage new IT Development projects, but if we have Service Desk and Software, would we also need Core?  Or would you only need Core if you just wanted to manage projects that don't involve IT Development/Programming type tasks?  I'm assuming we could use JIRA Software to manage non-IT projects as well, so looking for confirmation or denial if my assumptions are correct or not.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

-Janel

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Indeed.  When you want all three, I have a slight preference for installing JIRA Software and then adding Service Desk later via  "application management", but you could in theory do JIRA-SD first, or just Core and then add the other two.

It's all one server.  Software and SD layer themselves over the core functions in, well, Core.

So if you have a (Software) developer who also needs to be a Service Desk Agent, yes, they would need a licence for Software and an Agent licence.  But it's one server with one single user account.

Janel Berning · Answer

Thanks, Nic!  That helps!  So, if I get JIRA Software or JIRA Service Desk, then I'll automatically get JIRA Core functionality as well.

Next question...

Let's say we're using both JIRA Software to manage development projects and JIRA Service Desk to manage maintenance-level projects... each user that needs access to both types of projects would have to have 2 licenses, one for JIRA Software and one for JIRA Service Desk, correct?  But would they actually be accessing 2 separate systems with different logins, or would they be able to access both from within the same user interface and have a single login?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Software and Service Desk are applications for Core, not separate pieces of software.  They run on top of Core, adding functions to it.  Core provides projects, issues, workflows, user management and so-on.

Software adds Scrum and Kanban boards on top of Core and JSD adds SLAs, Queues, and Portals on top of Core.

You are using core automatically by using either of the other two.  The licence for each includes a Core for the application user too, as they need to use issues, workflows and so-on.

So, yes, there are a lot of people using all three together.  One system, with varying numbers of "just" Core users, JSD Agents and Software developers.  Sometimes two systems, but then getting issues from one to the other becomes a bit of a pain.

JIRA Core is more aimed at non-software stuff, so yes, use it for non-IT projects, but there's nothing to stop you (if you have the licences) using Software functions to run those projects if they're useful to you.