Current capabilities and plans for Service Relationships?

[Stefan Draber]

Hi all,

can someone please explain the current capabilities of Service Relationships in Opsgenie to me?

I had the expectation that when Service A is impacted the dependant Service B would be impacted as well, but in my tests (incident impacting Service A) I did not find anything which would even indicate that there could also be an impact to Service B.

Also, when I view Service A from the Services overview (top menu), I don't see any dependant services. When I view Service B, I can see that it's depending on Service A. That doesn't make sense, because when there's an incident impacting Service A and I want to know which other related services could be affected, I would drill down from affected Service A rather than click through all other services to check whether they're depending on Service A.

So, is the incident investigation feature really the only useful service relationship feature?

(I'm aware of this article and actually I hoped that the functionality would have evolved since back then: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Opsgenie-questions/Services-relationship-and-teams-How-it-works/qaq-p/1382317 )

Are there any plans to go one or more steps further with service relationships in the (near) future?

[John M]

Hi @Stefan Draber ,

You can actually see the service relationship both ways, as long as services are assigned to team. You can view the relationship from the 'services' page on the team dashboard. Here is an example:

[Stefan Draber]

Hi @John M 

thanks for your feedback, unfortunately I cannot confirm for my instance.

I have a demo-configuration where Service 2 depends on Service 1. This is shown on the Service 2 page, but not on the Service 1 page (please see screenshots below).

We're running on Opsgenie standalone, not on JSM-Opsgenie, if that makes a difference.

Apart from that, is it correct that the service relationship doesn't play any role in incident situations (e.g. there's an incident impacting Service 1, and because Service 2 depends on Service 1 it's impacted as well)?

[John M]

Hi @Stefan Draber 

You should be able to add the 'contains' relationship here:

That is correct - the service relationships won't automatically affect related services. We do have some feature requests to change this functionality, though there is no ETA on them. 

[Stefan Draber]

Hi @John M 

sure, I could add the relationship manually. I just expected that when I link a relationship from one side (Service 2 depends on Service 1) that the link would automatically also appear on the other side (Service 1 contains Service 2). Comparable to issue-linking in Jira.

We do have some feature requests to change this functionality, though there is no ETA on them.

That brings me back to the last question in my original post: Are there any plans to go one or more steps further with service relationships in the (near) future?

Could you (or maybe a product manager) please share something like a roadmap for what's to be expected in (standalone) Opsgenie for the future?

[John M]

@Stefan Draber  I agree, the it would make sense for the opposite relationship to automatically be added for to the other service.

However, to be transparent, Standalone Opsgenie standalone likely won't see any significant updates to existing features, particularly with respect to services, as the current focus is on the JSM-integrated Opsgenie, which adds Opsgenie into the JSM UI. The Opsgenie roadmap is primarily focused on that. 

[Stefan Draber]

Hi @John M 

thanks a lot for your transparent feedback, much appreciated.

Does JSM-Opsgenie handle this whole service-relationship thing better as of now?

Or, maybe a bit more general, does JSM-Opsgenie have more advantages/features than Standalone Opsgenie, apart from JSM-functionalities and -integrations? Is there maybe an overview or something, comparing JSM- and Standalone Opsgenie?

[John M]

@Stefan Draber  I believe the way the services work will be largely the same, with the addition of Major incidents. We do have this doc that compares JSM- Opsgenie with Standalone:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/main-differences-between-opsgenie-plans-when-bundled-with-jira-service-management-or-as-a-standalone-product-1163763012.html

The above was actually created for the JSM-subordinate Opsgenie, which is not exactly the same as the consolidated experience, which adds Opsgenie to the JSM UI, but the points still apply. 

This is also a good answer from Nick on this question:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Opsgenie-questions/What-are-the-biggest-differences-between-Opsgenie-Standalone-and/qaq-p/1958748