JIra service desk and Jira Software

[Dean Holmes]

We have been using Jira for a number of years for our own software tools and one off custom projects. 

We already have a full blown ticketing system for support, we need an intermediate tool while are custom software is still unreleased and being tested by the client.

I have installed service desk on-top of our Jira, customers can enter issues, bugs etc through the portal. I have two Application Engineers that are agents in service desk. They validate the issues and then I want them to but the bug into our normal jira.

I have a number of dev teams that can work on these issues, but they are not agents. How to they collaborate  on a service desk project.

Can I link a service desk project to a jira project? Struggling with the concept. We don't want to have our dev as agents.

90% of these service desk tickets will be bugs and or feature request, not support. Once the customer as signed off and the systems are in production then they will end up with our normal IT support system.

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

@Dean Holmes, this a a question that has been posed many times and there are answers out there but takes some digging. I will provide a quick summary of how I and many folks deal w/ this.

1. JSW is used for development just as you are today
2. JSD is used as a customer facing ticketing system
3. Tickets come in from customers that are associated to the product managed under the JSD dev project.
4. The agent creates a linked issue into the JSW project which copies over all the necessary data fields
5. JSD agent maintains ownership of the JSD ticket and all outward focused communications
6. Developer works on dev issue to closure
7. JSD Automation is used to automatically transition the JSD ticket 'following' the JSW ticket transition to resolved/done.
8. JSD Agent works w/ customer to negotiate closure per your workflow, etc.

In this way you keep your developers in JSW and customer support/IT agents in JSD. You can setup your developers as collaborators for the JSD project so they can comment internally and browse issues.

controls cost as you don't have (want) developers to be agents.

hope this helps.

[Dean Holmes]

Thank you for the detailed response, do you have any links to documentation or videos.

I love Atlassian products but I feel I'm on my own trying to figure this stuff out while management is chomping at the bit for a solution. 

[Dean Holmes]

Thanks, I have this working as proof of concept, I will expand and refine over the next few days.

Thank you

[Marius Abalaru]

Hi Jack.

I have JSD  3.4.2 and no longer available COLLABORATORS option, how resolv "comment internally and browse issues." for my developers?

I find that is possible without need licenese for developers in Jira Service Desk:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/setting-up-service-desk-users-732528877.html?_ga=2.30950396.218880159.1548859681-717687986.1548256179 - section Involve Jira Software or Jira Core users

 https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/collaborate-with-other-jira-teams-on-jira-service-desk-issues-930022007.html

But I have not succeeded.

I did all the setting from links above but the developers from Jira Software don't see the Project and Issues from Jira Service Desk only if I give access in  Aplication access to JIRA Service Desk but this action leads to exceeding maximum allowed license in  Jira Service Desk

[Jack Brickey]

@Marius Abalaru, You should be able to simply create a group (settings > user management > groups) call it JSD Colaborators or whatever you want. Then give the group browse and comment access in the project (project > project settings > permissions)

[Marius Abalaru]

Thanks Jack.

I did that

but no efect.

This users no are access in Jira Service desk

If I try to access Jira Service Desk link, after I introduced credentials, I'm redirected to the Customer portal.

[Marius Abalaru]

[Jack Brickey]

1. who is in the "Developers1" group?
2. Do those listed have JSW application access? Obviously they will need this to collaborate.
3. are you logging in as one of those users or having them test?
4. you mention "if you try to access JSD link..." . What link, a JSD issue link? if they are redirected to the portal then they are being treated as a customer.

[Marius Abalaru]

1, the same users that we have in JSW

2. yes but I have JSW and JSD separate on 2 servers and I linked it

3. yes of course

4, the same link with access JSD my Agents;  they are redirect to the portal because no have acces to Service Desk aplication can you see

[Marius Abalaru]

Links JSW - JSD

[Marius Abalaru]

Links JSD - JSW

[Marius Abalaru]

I think that the problem is that I have two sets of users in those two separate instance JSD and JSW and in JSD I don't have info about group jira-software-user.

In Users management is a option "JIRA users server" wouldn't it be useful? in my situation

[Jack Brickey]

that is absolutely the issue. one instance does not know about the other. I have never connected two instances so I'm not sure I can provide direct assistance. there are some threads about connecting two instances. I would recommend using the search box at the top of the page. FWIW, i think two instances creates unnecessary complexity. 

[Marius Abalaru]

the both instance know about other but not in all 

so,

I can link issue from JSD to issue from JSW

If status from issue is changed this is visible and in another instance

but not working Automation(Update when a linked issue changes) and my current issue

[Ivailo Ivanov]

Hello, @Marius Abalarudid you manage to solve your issue and how?

[Johnny Maw]

@Jack Brickey this is a useful thread, thank you.

What relationship should the (new duplicate) JSW and JSD issue have so that the requester can view the status of the JSW issue, while retaining the "Waiting for Agent/Customer" statuses in the JSD issue? The user story I believe looks like this:

1. The Requester submits the JSD issue
2. The Agent determines the JSD issue is a development gap, duplicates, and submits to dev team for prioritization.
3. If the Dev team goes forward the Dev, the status of the dev issue (or some derivation of the status) is delivered to the Requester for updates (via JSD).
4. The Agent can continue to monitor and respond feedback from the requester (within the JSD queues) as new questions or comments arise.

The clean answer is perhaps that the user can see the status of a linked issue, but that linked issue is (I think?) in the JSW so the requester should not have access. Thank you in advance for any clarity. 

[sgroazil]

Hi there,

I think I'm in the right place but not able to find my answer.  

Today our users/business sign-in to jira service desk to create tickets/support and for being able to see the entire list of tickets they have created.

Once created, we (product team) review them (first line support) in order to prioritize them to add them in the sprint of our jira software. However, if we just move it from service desk to software then users cannot see their tickets anymore in jira service desk. So we duplicate the issue in software but it is not efficient and a waste of time. Also, once the ticket is done, we have to look for the ticket in service desk and inform business (again a waste of time). 

How it is supposed to work? 

Thank you in advance,

[Jack Brickey]

@sgroazil , this thread speaks precisely to your question. You don’t move the original issue to the JSW project as it breaks the connection with the customer. Rather you create a linked issue and if desired add automation such that the JSD issue is updated based upon the transitions of the JSW issue. Yes you end up with two tickets for on issue but the benefits outweigh the singular inconvenience.

[sgroazil]

@Jack Brickey thank you for your feedback. 

By create a a linked issue, do you mean clone the original? Because this is what we are currently doing but I don't think it is efficient as all the comments are lost for instance? 

How should I do to add automation?

Thank you,

Suzanne

[Jack Brickey]

link updated...

If you are on cloud you can use “create linked issue”. Here is an article - create-a-linked-issue-to-collaborate-with-other-jira-product . By using this you can easily see the link in the issue allowing you to navigate between the two.

as Far as the automation it depends on your exact goals..

[Heba]

I couldn't find that article

[marven massey]

@Jack Brickey I am running into a similar issue.  My question is posted here > https://community.atlassian.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5079973?show=activity#details

If we are on the same 'instance" will passing comments from JSW to JSD work?  We dont want to "own" the original case but assign it to another department.  This department does not use Jira Service Mgmt software.

thanks 

[Soporte Novacloud]

Hi @Dean Holmeswhere you able to find any documentation on how to link JSD Issues to JSW Project?

I want to do the same thing. I have a team of 3 JSD Agents, and I want them to be able to Link their JSD issues to JSW.  So my development team can solve the bugs or requests.

Have anyone of you where able to to that configuration?

I haven't find any documentation.

[Iborn Scott]

@Dean Holmes @Soporte Novacloud were you able to find any documentation?

[Mamta Chaube]

https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskserver031/linking-issues-802165194.html#Linkingissues-Createanewlinkedissuefromanexistingissueinaservicedeskorbusinessproject

[Deleted user]

Hi @Dean Holmes,

It sounds like you may have solved your most immediate needs, but just in case this is helpful for you, my company makes the Backbone Issue Sync app which you might want to check out. https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.k15t.backbone.backbone-issue-sync/server/overview

One of our primary use cases are synchronizing tickets across instances that are set up to provide multiple layers of support (or to triage support tickets with development teams). Here is one such scenario explained: https://www.k15t.com/blog/2017/01/keeping-1st-level-and-2nd-level-it-support-teams-in-sync

We think our app takes some of the pain out of such processes. Hope this is of help! Cheers,

-Davin

[Desiree Graste]

Hi,

we are struggling with the same issue. We don't want to clone/duplicate every ticket that is assigned to the development team. The 2 tickets always are out of sync and yes there are nice plugins that can sync that for you. But we just simply want 1 ticket for the whole process and it's fine that only the support employees can communicate with the customer through the portal.  

My main question is; can I use the same workflow that I use in the Jira software for devs for a issue type of a service desk project? thank you for an answer!

[Jack Brickey]

Yes you can use the same workflow for a JSD and JSW project if that is what you are asking. Unsure how that solves your problem but yes you can.

[Desiree Graste]

Thank you, yes I also tested it.

But doesn't solve my problem of a normal simpel flow that a customer requests something, dev makes it and customer can monitor it through the portal. Devs don't have to talk directly to customer. But you really don't want to have 2 tickets in your system for the same issue/request/bug or what ever. Every solution (sync add ons etc) are not a real solution, just a work around for a problem that should not be a problem because technical its possible. 

[Dean Holmes]

I understand your need, however we wanted to keep them separate. We’ve been using Jira for a very long time and have all our internal project and engineering team integrated into our Jira workflows.

We added service desk for user acceptance testing (UAT) a place for clients to raise questions, freature request, bugs, training etc. We needed different workflows for that. An agent can triage a ticket and determine if the issue is a bug or the user requires training. They can request more information,screen grabs etc. If it is a bug or FR then with a couple of clicks it can raise either feature request or bug issues in Jira for engineering. Again depending on feature request or bug they have different workflows.

I did get the two system talking, so that when a relevant step in Jira is made it updates the steps in service desk. So far we are very please, in fact I Demoed to our board yesterday, I’m now task to see if it can replace our own in house support ticketing system. 

[Christian Reichert (resolution)]

Hi Dean,

the expensive proposition is to make them agents.

Depending on what you mean "collaborating" exactly - you may want to look into the Servicedesk automation.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/automating-your-service-desk-732528900.html

Here you can for example update a service desk ticket when a linked ticket (like a dev ticket) changes.

Also for more advanced stuff there is a automation for Jira App in the Marketplace which is very feature rich:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.codebarrel.addons.automation/server/overview

We are a marketplace developer and use the combination of the above to automate our support and work with linked tickets.

Cheers,

Chris

[Dean Holmes]

Thanks, this all seems very painful and expensive for a simple problem.

We simply need clients to be able to report issues, we then validate and put them dev for bug fixes. We have a custom workflow in Jira that works.

We just need the client limited visibility, service desk works but dev should not have to be agents, we should be able to have agents assign an issue to a dev. They should be able to update the workflow when bug fixes is done and the customer have visibility to the status.

The only communication between the client should be agents

[Susan Hauth _Jira Queen_]

Hi Dean,

You could link your service desk issues to your dev project issues.  JSD Automation supports transitioning on linked issues.

Does that help?

Susan

[Christian Reichert (resolution)]

Hi Dean,

but then probably linked tickets & the automation update on linked issue update - which comes as standard (no cost) with JSD might be enough for you.

Cheers,
Christian