Giving links to Jira tickets from another Jira

[Istvan Fay]

Hello,

I am quite a novice user of Jira, and have been confronted with the following situation described below. There are two companies, company A and company B. Company A makes a product for company B. Company B uses the product, and puts their error descriptions / problem reports into their Jira system as tickets. Company A receives the error description and set a ticket in company A's Jira system. What the two companies would like to have is an automatic linkage between the two Jira systems:

• when company B generates a new ticket, and wants to share this ticket with company A, there should be an automatic signal (for example an automatic e-mail) sent to company A + company A should be able to read this ticket. But only this ticket, not all the tickets of company B
• when company A makes an update to the corresponding ticket in Company A's Jira, an automatic signal should go to company B that there is an update at company A's side

Is this linking with automatic updates possible?

Thanks for your support!

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ · Accepted solution]

Hey @Istvan Fay

I gave a talk last year about cross-company collaboration scenarios in Jira last year. It mentions 5 ways how you can collaborate:

1. Use Email for the exchange & manual update in your Jiras
2. Allow the users of one company to access the other Jira and use permissions/issue security schemes/etc.
3. Use a shared Cloud instance for this project
4. Share issues externally (like a dropbox link) via an external share app from the Atlassian Marketplace
5. Sync issues with the other instance via an issue sync app from the Atlassian Marketplace

Here's the full talk:

Let me know if you need further help.

Cheers,
Matthias.

PS: I'm part of a team behind the Backbone Issue Sync - one of these issue sync apps.

[Istvan Fay]

Hi Matthias,

thanks, that was a avery good presentation, help to put some issue on their places!

BR,   Istvan

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Istvan Fay 

Welcome to the Atlassian community!

For Company A and Company B:

- What is the hosting type for their Jira instances? Are they self-hosted (Jira Server/Data Center) or Jira Cloud hosted?

- In what type of project are the tickets being created for each company? Are the tickets in Jira Software projects or Jira Service projects or Jira Core/Work Management projects?

[Istvan Fay]

Hello Trudy,

thanks for the fast response!

• They are Jira Cloud hosted, I believe
• Sorry, how can one decide which version of Jira is used there?

[Istvan Fay]

From the attended usage point of view, I would say it is Jira Service Management: we would like to use it as an error ticketing system

[Istvan Fay]

The cooperation as described in Wikipedia under Networked Help Desk API (Networked Help Desk - Wikiwand) is pretty much the way how we would like to cooperate.

Is the understanding correct that Networked Help Desk API is already built in into Jira, so when we have separate Jiras, but turn the API in both sides on, this automatic exchange of update is solved?

[Trudy Claspill]

I have not seen that Networked Help Desk information before.

All my previous experience and understanding of the working of the Jira products is that the synchronization of issues between two separately hosted Jira products requires the use of an app to configure and manage that synchronization. There are a variety of apps for that purpose available in the Atlassian Marketplace. You can find this topic discussed in multiple locations by searching the internet with Google (link to example search).

Included in those results is the third party app that comes up first when searching the Atlassian Marketplace - Issue Synch - Synchronization for Jira. I have not used that app before so cannot provide any first hand experience or recommendation about it.

[Istvan Fay]

Thanks a lot for your support!

[Katarzyna Szumilas_Deviniti_]

Hi there!

I'm part of the team responsible for the mentioned app - Issue Sync for Jira.
This plugin enables synchronization of two separate Jira's which means that you can automatically create a ticket in Company's A Jira while Company B reports an error in their system. All the data (fields, comments, attachments, statuses) can be then copied over to the remote ticket as specified in the configuration and kept in sync also when values change.
It eliminates manual work while remaining secure - the app lets you decide which projects/ issue types and fields will be exposed to your sync partner. Even the admins of both Jiras won't see anything more than configured.

Recently we published also a lighter, more user-friendly version of this plugin - Issue Sync Lite. It will also serve this case and... it's free :) If you would like to see it in action, we will be happy to arrange a demo for you.

Best regards,
Kasia from Deviniti

[Istvan Fay]

Dear Kasia,

thank you very much, that answers my question perfectly! At the moment we are planing the setups, so the question is at the moment only theoretical.

Thanks also Trudy for the support!

[Istvan Fay]

Dear Kasia,

an issue that came up recently: you have written "and kept in sync also when values change". When one side changes a value, how long does it take until the update appears on the other side: seconds, minutes, hours? There were very differing guesses in the project about the duration :) 

BR, Istvan

[Katarzyna Szumilas_Deviniti_]

Hi @Istvan Fay

My apologies. I must have overlooked your question!
Usually - seconds, however, it also depends on the type of synchronized elements - for example adding or removing attachments might take even a few minutes due to their size and Jira limitations. But it's never a matter of hours!

Hope that helps :)
Kasia

[Istvan Fay]

Dear Kasia,

thanks for the responses!

Best regards,

Istvan

[Syed Majid Hassan -Exalate-]

Hi @Istvan Fay

This is Majid @ Exalate. 

As has been pointed out, issue synchronization apps such as Exalate, specialize in performing this Jira to Jira collaboration between two independent instances. In our experience, the most important factors to consider in such cases are security, granular control over data and autonomy of both sides. You can read up about how Exalate excels in cross-company collaboration but keep these factors as the driving force behind our solution. 

Hope it helps.

Happy syncing!

Thanks

Majid