How to add collaborators (not agent) to JSM

[claudeeller0]

I have recently started a new JSM Project and would like to add Agents and Collaborators (such as developers from other Jira Software Projects).

All related post I could find did not help my issue.

According to this post here:
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management/Adding-team-members-to-Service-Desk/qaq-p/1255185

When I add people via "invite Team" they will be added as agents directly. Firstly this button doesn't seem to exist anymore as I only have "add people" on the JSM Project. If I do that will they also receive a JSM license and added as agents?

I tried adding a person only via the second step in Service Desk Project -> Project Settings -> People -> Add People (Choosing "Service Desk Team" role). However this person immediatly seems to have received agent access rights, because they can now add external notes and transition the issue etc. Also I see them as billed person on billing information.

All I want to do is add collaborators to my JSM. Why is this so hard?
According to this official documentation I should go to "People" "add collaborators". https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedesk025/managing-collaborators-754977407.html.
But where is this infamous "people" page. It's certainly not under project settings -> people and access because there is no "add collaborator" button here.

Someone please help.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @claudeeller0 and welcome to the Community!

Adding collaborators is not hard, but the naming of the role does make it a bit confusing. All you need to do is add users to the Service Desk Team role of your project, as you describe it. If those users get agent access by doing so, this is because they have also been granted JSM product access (and a JSM license). This may happen because those users happen to be agents in a different service desk or because your organisation has been slightly too generous when handing out JSM licenses.

About the location of the People page ... Atlassian has been enthusiastically at work lately to change quite a few things in the navigation. If your JSM project is company managed, then you should be able to find Project Settings > Access > People and Access now.

Hope this helps!

[Claude]

Hi Walter, 

As I am the site admin I didn not hand out any JSM Licenses nor did anybody else at my company as we just set it up this morning.

The only 2 people I have added via the second method mentioned above immediatly were automatically given JSM Licenses it seems.

So then how can I remove their JSM License? I have also tried going in User management in site admin page and there I can see this for that user: 
If I would go ahead and remove the checkmark next to Jira Servicer Management - Agent then the user will not be able to even see the JSM Issue at all. So it doesn NOT make him a collaborator by removing the checkmark.

Also I don't see the button to "add collaborator" under Project Settings > Access > People and Access as I had already previously written in my post.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Selecting the JSM - Agent role for a user does grant him/her a JSM license. But from what you are saying, I am getting the impression that you only have Jira Service Management in your site (and no other Jira product). A collaborator is a user with a license on another Jira product that you add to the Service Desk Team role in your service desk, without the service management agent role. But if you don't have another Jira product in your site, that condition is obviously not met. And that would explain why people cannot see any issues in JSM while they are not granted agent permissions.

[Claude]

That might be it. We do of course have other Jira software but when I set up the JSM it asked me if I want to add it to a new Site or to an existing one. I clicked new. So does that mean the users in this site are somehow not connected to their other jira products anymore? 

I did think about that, but then I saw that the whole directory of our company employees are automatically populated when I go to add a new Person, so I figured it's still connected. Also all the employees have the "Has access on site" checkmark, which again made me assume in that case both sites are connected.

If I'm wrong in my assumption please let me know.
Thank you

[Walter Buggenhout]

That's it indeed. You probably have added a new site under a same organization (which acts as an umbrella, more or less). But in order to add Jira Software Users as collaborators to Jira Service Management, you need to have these products under the same site.

[Claude]

Alright. Perfect! 

Thank you so much for your help and answer. This is truly the only answer that solved my issue. 

Would you happen to know if I can still add the site to the existing one or do I need to start a new JSM and then select "add to existing". 

Cheers,
Claude

[Walter Buggenhout]

Great to hear, @Claude and @claudeeller0! In that case, do hit the accept button 😛

Based on what I understand about your setup, I think the best thing you can do is either add JSM (the product) to your Jira site or the other way around, and optionally use the copy product data feature to copy over your data from one site to the other. Once you have everything in one place, you can cancel the site you no longer need.

A couple of things to consider:

• your current sites have different URL's. Consider which one you prefer to keep;
• check the article about the copy product data feature I included to validate what gets copied over and what doesn't;
• assess how much effort you have already put into configuring things. If you have already done a lot of config work, it might make sense to try and copy over your data. If you just created an empty project from a template and haven't modified anything yet, you might just repeat that same action on the other side/site ...

[Claude]

Can someone tell me why these 2 answers are marked as "accepted" answers. This gives the impression that my issue is solved but it's not yet. I never accepted these answers.

[John Funk]

Not sure who marked those or why - but I have unchecked them for you. You should have been able to do the same - just click on it if it is marked Accepted to turn that off. 

[Sam Nadarajan]

This should help: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management/Re-How-do-I-add-user-as-Collaborator-on-Jira-Service-Man/qaq-p/2138778/comment-id/115204#M115204

[Claude]

Hi Sam,

I have already also found this forum post and it did not help. The users I have added are all immediately turned into JSM Agents. If I remove the JSM license then they don't have any access to JSM view issues at all. So again, how can I add collaborators?