What is the difference between the project role service desk team and a group with agents?

[Fahad Akhtar]

I have a group for agents but there is also a project role called "Service Desk Team". The same people that are in my agent group also have "service desk team" project roles for all of the projects on my jira service desk. What is better to make a "Team" of agents or a "Group" of agents? And please explain the difference between teams and groups. Thank you. 

[Michael Andolfatto]

Hi @Fahad Akhtar ,

The Service Desk Team option is a role that is included in several spots on a service desk project's permission scheme by default. By adding people to your project with this role, you typically give them the ability to access and interact with your project as an agent.

You could add the group of agents to your service desk's permission scheme in the same areas and there would be no difference in terms of what they are able to do.

It is however, best practice to use roles instead of groups, as this lets a project administrator manage their team, instead of needing a jira administrator to modify the group's membership.

Also, if you only have one 'agents' group with say, 8 agents in it and add that to SD project A and SD project B, all of the members will have the access of an agent in both projects, even if only half should be in A and half in B. This is again where roles becomes the better option.