How to use Assets and Jira SM for use case Reporting broken hardware

[#1]

In this article I’d like to show you how you can use Assets to power up your Internal IT support. I use the case when an employee need to report a broken device, but the solution in the article can be used in many other cases too.

Getting started with Jira SM for Internal IT

Creating a service project using the template IT Service Management is an easy way to get going with establishing a portal for Internal IT. You’re off to a flying start with pre made request types in groups on an easy to use portal request forms for your employees.

The broken hardware use case

In the template form above we are served with the text field “Affected hardware”. The reporter types in the piece of device they want to report. Knowing users, some will type in the IMEI code for their mobile phone, some simply just "my phone".

What if your IT team manage existing devices in InTune or Google Workspace or in a list on the shared drive? With attributes like day purchased and length of warranty and owner etc that would be helpful information whilst handling the issues?

To enhance the experience we would want to replace the action of users typing in content into the form, that needs to be interpreted and validated by the team, with presenting only relevant devices for the reporter to choose from.

How to do it?

Step one - get the data into Assets

Explore the Asset functionality in Jira. It comes bundled with Jira SM in Premium and is like a mini database in Jira (aka CMDB capabilities).

In Assets the Jira admin can create Object Schemas (call it f ex Internal IT Assets) , define Object Types used in the schema (f ex Laptops and Mobile phones) which you define attributes for (f ex purchase date, owner, model, manufacturer). Then you start populating objects in your list, either manually or import it from a csv file. In a sense very much similar to creating a Jira project, defining the issue types to use in the project and then add fields to screens per issue type.

If you already manage your devices in InTune you can use Pios importer for InTune and get both the whole Object schema and all the objects all synced in on a regular schedule with a few clicks. 

If you’re not into Microsoft you might use Google Workspace to manage users and devices. Pio has a Google Workspace importer too.

Here is an example of object types and their attributes. 

Step two - Create & Configure Asset fields to connect data with issues

When the data is in place we need to tie the data in assets to the issues in Jira.

1. Create an Asset custom field and then click on configure

2. Define from what Object Schema to fetch objects. In my example I use the PIO suggestion name “Microsoft InTune”

3. Define what object types to fetch with AQL. In my example I use the PIO suggestion “Managed Devices”

objectType = "Managed Devices"

4. Define how to filter the list of devices in the field with AQL. In my example the Managed Device object is connected to a Users object which has a Jira user attribute. 

object HAVING outboundReferences("Jira" = ${reporter})

The end result

Serve reporters with a list of relevant devices

For the reporter, this means that the user is only able to choose those devices where they are owners.

Accurate data with more context for agents

Agents can see the connected object, the attributes of your choice and then a link to get to the full object view.  Having that type of information readily available in the request form for the reporter or for the agent dealing with the ticket will increase the quality and speed of the services.

All the best

/Lisa

Other articles on similar topics:

Improve Order requests with assets and automations 

Using the Location of the Jira User 

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Cool article! 👀📚

Just a note - if you're not fan of reference functions (inbound/outbound), in Assets objects field config., for Filter issue scope (AQL), you could probably use the following

"Owner"."Jira" == ${reporter}

and this should get you the same object results.

[Michael_Hamernik]

Hi Lisa, 

If you used PIOs Intune Importer, you don´t have the "Jira" Attribute on the User Objects, hence, the AQL query fails.

I just installed the Intune Importer and synced the data. and now I am stuck.

I want to show only the managed devices (Scheme created by the importer) from the customer (reporter) 

Tried things like this which I saw in another tutorial:

 "Managed Devices" AND Owner = ${reporter.label}

The problem is that the reporter variable does not work at all. I tried a lot of combinations and it never showed any data, except when I entered a name like like this in the "Filter issue scope" AQL field:

Owner = "My Name"

Do you have any clue what could be the reason for that? Like I said, I just installed the app and let it create the Scheme.

It kind of looks like a permissions issue, but I cannot figure it out.

Would be great if you could point me in the right direction!

Michael


PS: Problem fixed - to map the synced users from Intune or AzureAD to Jira users (even if they were provisioned from AzureAD before, you need an Automation *facepalm*. 

Mapping Azure AD Users with Jira Users and Jira Groups - Web Site - Confluence (atlassian.net)