Jira Image of the Day: Supporting Jira with JSM

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Concept Relates To

Application Type	Jira Service Management
Deployment Type	Jira Cloud, Jira Server, Jira Data Center

What is shown?

A JSM project for managing Jira application changes

Visit: your-jira-site.atlassian.net/servicedesk (Cloud)
Visit: your-jira-url.com/servicedesk (Server and Data Center)

What can we learn?

I like to track Jira configuration changes, customization requests, and application support right in Jira! Here’s an example of a Jira Service Management Cloud project used to manage Jira and other internal applications. No JSM? No problem. You could also use a business Jira project. This tracking method works perfectly except if Jira is unexpectedly down. So just keep that in mind during upgrades in Server or Data Center, for example.

Here’s how I configure an application support project, to give you ideas for configuring yours.

Project Settings

Name	Application Support
Key	AS
Type	Service Management

I recommend one Jira project to manage all internal applications, so I’ve named the project “Application Support”.

Tip: Don’t name your project “Jira” or “Project”. Avoid confusion by treating those phrases like reserved terms.

Issue Types or Request Types

Here are the issue types or request forms I’d create.

Issue Type	Description
User Access	Request access or permission changes
New Jira Project	Request Jira projects for departments, teams, or large initiatives
Modify Jira Project	Request changes to existing Jira projects
Task	General requests, questions, and everything else

For this application support project, I based the types on common actions performed. For example, the information I collect for a user access request is very different from what I collect for a new Jira project request. So, to me, those warrant their own custom issue types.

And of course, I always include a general issue type, like "Task", to collect other types of work. Also, Jira administrators can use a generic type to record other actions like research, troubleshooting, maintenance, or configuration changes not related to access or project-specific requests.

Create Components

Next, I use components to categorize requests by application name. If applications are managed by a specific team member, I set them as the component lead, so issues are automatically assigned to them when created.

Tip: If you’re using JSM, you can automatically set the component value in the background, so the user doesn’t have to. Here’s how:

Here’s an example “New Jira Project” request form. Open the form and click the “Use preset value and hide from portal” checkbox. Then select the related component. (E.g., Jira) This will hide the field in the portal and automatically fill the hard-coded component each time a request is created.

How do you manage Jira configuration changes and support requests? Share your tips in the comment section below!

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[Patrick van der Rijst]

Using the REST API you can even automate the creation of Jira projects and Confluence Spaces. 

Protips:

- make some template projects/spaces users can select so you can easily share the configuration settings.

- add a category dropdown so all new projects/spaces are categorised