Ability to view & add issues in Jira Software projects

[Gary Spross]

I was trying to utilize the free version of Jira Software to answer my question, but apparently you cannot adjust permissions in the free version, so I've come here to ask this question. If a user is licensed for Jira Service Management, are they able to be given permissions to view & add issues for projects within Jira Software?

I'm trying to understand what amount of licenses we will ultimately need based on the product usage by each individual. Our Aftermarket group needs Jira Service Management licenses to handle external customer requests/issues. That same Aftermarket group may need to see what other departments are currently working on and may need to add issues to be worked on (based on external customer requests/issues), but those other departments would have projects existing within Jira Software. We need the ability to handle internal requests, but having to purchase a Service Management & Software license for everyone makes the pricing skyrocket...

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

It's a bit of a convoluted thing (because it's evolved, rather than been designed), but broadly, yes.

The way the three applications work for each type of user is different, but the list of rules I gave to one of our new starters a few weeks back seemed to help them:

Projects can have all sorts of complicated permissions, but do not affect licencing counts.

Jira Software users (developers) and Jira Service Desk users (Agents) all have access to Jira Core (Jira Work Management) as part of their licence.   Jira Core is providing stuff like issues, workflows, fields, users, projects and so on, and it's easier to think of Jira Software and Jira Service desk as adding functions on top of that, rather than separate things.

So now, we can say

Jira Software users can use the Boards with all their Sprint and Kanban functions. 

Jira Service Management users can act as Agents in Service-management projects.  

Jira Core users can only use the projects and issues, they can't use boards or work on customer requests

The point here is that someone with a Core licence (whether it's literally a Core licence, or a Core licence as part of a Software or Service-Management licence) can be set up to see and work with any project of any type.  Just not all the functions if they don't have the appropriate licence.

To pull out the specific cases you have:

You've got some people who will be service management agents (Aftermarket group).  You can let them into any project you want, they have a Core licence, so they can be set up to see, update, report on and work with any project you want, irrespective of type.  But if you want them to work with the Software boards, you'll need to grant them a Software licence as well.

You've got another set of people who are "developers", who will use development projects, and the associated boards.  They might need to see some help-desk issues, and that's fine, because they can see projects via their implicit Core licence.  They won't be able to do a lot with the Service Management issues, but they can at least see and comment on them.   (An annoying oversight in Jira is that I regularly get asked to look at a service management issue in our Jira, and I can comment, attach stuff, and so on, but I can't log my time worked directly on the issue - only Agents can log work there, which is annoying for the "hang on, I need a dev/admin/expert to spend a bit of time here" cases).

TLDR:  In your case, you probably need a handful of (expensive) Agents and everyone else is a developer, only needing a Software licence.  But anyone you let into your systems can be allowed to see, and have some interaction with, all of your projects if you need them to.

[Gary Spross]

Excellent reply. That really helps to clear this up for me. Thanks for taking the time!

[Jack Brickey]

Yes absolutely. Actually in the free version everyone is an administrator. So in fact every user will be able to see every project every issue etc.

[Gary Spross]

Yeah, I don't see why they can't give all of the functionality within the free version so you can determine how & what will work best for your situation. Clarity on the access ability between products is a bit vague, so understanding that we'll get what we need has been difficult. Based on the response from "Nic Brough _Adaptavist_", I think it'll work as I've been hoping based on how we want to purchase licenses.