It’s a common problem in businesses around the world (with many still searching for the right solution to the issue). The autopsy report: teams becoming isolated in their workload, communication breaking down and silos being created. This is funny as you bought your Atlassian product under the pretense that tools like Jira will solve all of your problems. Let’s examine why communication issues can develop between your helpdesk and the development team?
Jira Software and Jira Service Management – while both carry some of the same core functionality – do have distinctly different features that target specific teams in a business. Jira Software adopts agile methodologies that are aimed at development teams and Jira Service Management has SLA features, queues, and customer portals – aimed at Helpdesk teams.
By integrating the two you can give your team visibility over the work they are performing, and allow users from Jira Software and agents from Jira Service Management to work together on tickets being raised. This article will look at the quickest ways you can integrate your Jira Software and Jira Service Management instances.
The quickest ways to integrate Jira Software and Jira Service Management
Application links
One way to do it, if you have two well-established instances of both Jira Software and Jira Service Management, is to create an Application Link between the two instances. This will have to be done by someone who has site admin rights on both instances, but it is relatively straight forward.
- Log into either the Jira Service Management or Jira Software application, in our example, we will log into Jira Software first.
- Head to Application Links – quickest way to do this use ‘GG’ on your keyboard and type in Application Links.
- Then enter the URL of the Jira Service Management application, and press ‘Create new link’. Check the box that states you are an Administrator in both instances if you are not then you will need to ask the Administrator of the other instance to set up a link.
- Follow the setup wizard, which will finish the setup of the link. The screenshot below shows an established link between Jira Software and Jira Service Management.
This will create a link that will enable users to quickly switch between the two. However, it should be noted that you will essentially still have two separate instances and therefore, anyone who wants access to both will need to have a user account for both – which means that another license will have to be consumed.
Linking without Jira Service Management instance
If you do not have an instance of Jira Service Management, and just have Jira Software – or vice versa – then you can add the application through Jira. Again, you will need to have administrator access.
- Log in as an administrator
- Head to Administration and then to Discover Applications
- You will then be presented with a screen that will show you the different applications you can integrate with your existing Jira application. In the below screenshot, Jira Service Management is not there as it is already added, but you can see the other products, such as Confluence, Jira Work Management, etc. (Please note these screens shots are from the cloud)
- Click ‘Try it now’ and then follow the install wizard. You can select to do a trial period, or if you have a license, evaluation, or otherwise, you can enter that.
Once the wizard is finished you will have to set up your first project in either Jira Service Management or Jira Software, depending on which you added, and then you are done! The main difference you will notice between this method and the aforementioned application links method is that now the projects from Jira Software and Jira Service Management will be visible in the same instance.
So now when you log in, you will see something similar to the above, and because both your Software and Service Management projects are within the same instance, it means that you can create linked issues between these projects, as well as also link existing issues to tickets in the Service Management projects.
The above methods are the easiest ways of integrating your Jira Software and Jira Service Management, but as you can see there are benefits to setting this up early. Setting up an Application Link will only allow users to quickly navigate between the two existing applications and it will require users to have an account on each instance. Whereas setting up Jira Service Management as part of Jira Software from the start will allow you to link issues between projects and allow greater collaboration between your users.
However, if you wish to explore further ways to integrate your existing Jira products, then you can contact one of the Valiantys experts and one of our Consultants will be able to advise on the best course of action for your situation! As an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, Valiantys can help you simplify your handling of Jira especially with your projects. Thanks to the Atlassian suite and apps, your teams can gain agility. We are here to accompany you from the conception of the solution to its hosting to the coaching of your team thanks to training and daily support.
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