Incident Management for DORA Compliance in Jira

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What happens when an IT incident strikes? It can ripple across an organization, disrupt operations, erode customer trust, and raise regulatory red flags. For financial institutions, the stakes are even higher under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). It’s not just about fixing the problem – it’s about proving you handled it swiftly, transparently, and by the book. With the right tools, you can transform this challenge into a streamlined process. Let’s explore how Jira can help you manage incidents effectively.

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DORA and its requirements

The Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA) is a regulatory framework established by the European Union (EU) to enhance the operational resilience of financial institutions and ensure they can withstand, respond to, and recover from various disruptions, particularly in the digital sphere. DORA aims to create a standardized approach to managing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) risks across the EU financial sector.

Key requirements:

• Strengthening ICT risk management. Requires financial entities to implement robust measures to identify, manage, and mitigate ICT risks.

• Uniform standards. Harmonizes digital resilience requirements across all financial entities, such as banks, insurance companies, investment firms, and fintech companies.

• Third-party risk management. Establishes rules for managing risks associated with third-party ICT service providers, such as cloud services.

• Incident reporting. Mandates financial entities to report significant ICT-related incidents to their national regulators.

• Testing and oversight. Financial institutions must regularly test their ICT systems and provide oversight mechanisms to ensure compliance.

Here, we’ll focus on incident management and how you can implement Jira's best practices.

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How Jira can help with incident management

DORA mandates that financial institutions manage ICT incidents quickly and transparently. This includes identifying, categorizing, and resolving issues, maintaining detailed records, and reporting to regulators promptly. The goal is not just compliance but ensuring operational resilience and trust in the face of disruptions.

Incident management requirements

• Timely identification and categorization of incidents

• Clear reporting structures and transparent communication

• Detailed documentation and audit trails for compliance audits

Jira features that align with compliance needs:

• Customizable workflows

• Robust tracking and reporting capabilities

• Integration with other tools for enhanced resilience testing and risk management

Jira’s flexibility allows it to be tailored to fit the unique needs of any organization, regardless of size or structure. Whether you’re a small team or a large enterprise, Jira can scale to handle growing incident management demands. Jira supports compliance workflows with features like customizable issue types, permissions, and automation.

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Setting up Jira for DORA incident management

With the right configurations, Jira can help streamline the entire incident management process, ensuring compliance and efficiency.

1. Configuring a project for incident reporting:
   Create a dedicated project specifically for incident management. Define relevant issue types such as "Incident" and "Critical Incident" to categorize and track issues effectively.

2. Customizing workflows:
   Design workflows that cover all stages of incident management, from initial identification to resolution and closure. Examples of workflow statuses could be: New → Under Investigation → Resolved.

3. Assigning roles and permissions:
   Ensure proper accountability by assigning roles with clear responsibilities while protecting sensitive data through customized permissions for each user.

Example of incident reporting workflow in Jira

1. A user reports an ICT issue via a Jira service desk.

2. The issue is automatically categorized (e.g., "Critical Incident").

3. The system assigns the incident to a relevant team member or group.

4. Progress is tracked in Jira with detailed logs of steps taken.

5. Create a report that summarizes the incident, resolution, and time to recovery.

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Enhancing Jira for DORA compliance

Integration tips
Connecting Jira with Confluence enables seamless documentation of incidents, ensuring all records are organized and easily accessible. Pairing Jira with other Atlassian tools like Bitbucket or Opsgenie fosters better collaboration across teams, streamlining the response process.

Incident Reporting with Issue History for Jira
The Issue History app is invaluable for tracking all changes made to incidents providing a clear, detailed log of actions. This ensures you meet DORA’s stringent record-keeping requirements while simplifying audit preparation.

Generate a comprehensive report of all changes made to incidents, including status updates, assignee changes, and custom field modifications. This ensures full traceability for every incident.

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Ensuring DORA compliance doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With Jira and tools like Issue History for Jira, you can streamline incident management, maintain detailed records, and stay audit-ready. By leveraging Jira’s flexibility and integrating it with other Atlassian tools, your organization can confidently meet regulatory requirements while enhancing operational resilience.