How to create an easy work request process that feeds Jira Software

[Jennifer Maurer]

I have four engineering teams using Jira Software and one IT team supporting the organization with Jira Service Management. I'm looking for the best way to create a request form/workflow that is easy for non-technical (business) people in the organization to engage the development/tech teams. This could be to request a software feature enhancement, or report a bug, request data onboarding to our data warehouse, etc. Today we have them enter an issue into the appropriate Jira project, but this is not scalable and requires business people to understand our project organization. 

Since we already have an easy form to drive JSM requests for tech support, could this be a possible solution?

We have Jira automation installed, so this could be part of the solution. 

Any ideas?

[John Funk]

Hi Jennifer - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I would just use a Jira Work Management project (which you might be already doing for the business folks). Create a simple form for them to fill out. Then use automation to create the appropriate issue in the Jira Software project(s) for Software requests or JSM for IT requests. You can link the tickets to each other so that the original  JWM issue is updated with status when the JSW or JSM ticket is started and closes. 

[Jennifer Maurer]

awesome, thanks, I'll explore that.

[Jennifer Maurer]

@John Funk 

As luck would have it; I don't have (and cannot get) JWM. We have Jira Software 9.4.1 Server license and are migrating to a Data Center license next year. I understand that JWM is only available with a Jira Cloud license.

I have also researched the GTJ (Google to Jira) plugin so we could use Gmail for the intake form. However, the server version is not available after Feb 15, 2023. It's not a viable option until after we upgrade to the Data Center license next year.

So, I am officially back to square one and open to any new / creative ideas from the community.

[John Funk]

Ah, since you are moving to Data Center, then Jira Service Management is going to be your best bet. You can have some very robust forms with that. 

You might also be able to use the Issue Collector.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/using-the-issue-collector-938847338.html

[Jennifer Maurer]

Thanks John, I have been playing with an issue collector on our internal intranet (Confluence) wiki and have that mostly functioning. I created a business project in Jira to configure the issue collector. Based on answers to the form questions, there are automation rules to clone the issue in the various other Jira projects aligned to our four development teams. For example, if customer selects x on the form, the issue is cloned and moved into Jira Project y and fires off an email notification to manager of Team y.

My reasoning behind creating the clone was to keep the original issue intact in the business project so it could be used for reporting such as seeing which customers are submitting the most forms per month, etc. I thought it could also be a one-stop-shop for our internal customers to see the progress on their issues. 

This would only work if the original issue is automatically updated when the clone issue is updated. That doesn't appear to be possible; but can you please confirm?

[John Funk]

Sure, that should be possible. You need to link the issues when you create the JWM project. Just make that another step in your rule that clones the issue. 

Then you can create another rule based on the issue transitioning in the JWM project. Then you would add a Branch for Linked Issues.

And then a new action under this branch for Transition issue. You can then choose the status you would like the original (and now linked) issue to transition to.