Atlassian<\/a> products such as\u00a0Jira, Jira Service Desk and Confluence are very powerful as\u00a0ITSM<\/a> tools. They may be\u00a0used by\u00a0both developer teams and operations departments. With their extensive customisation capabilities, the Atlassian products\u2019 environment may be\u00a0consistently used throughout organisations. This is a\u00a0huge benefit to\u00a0everyone responsible for IT service delivery.<\/p>\n ITSM is the comprehensive IT service management in\u00a0organisations.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The acronym comes from Information Technology Service Management.<\/p>\n ITSM may be\u00a0done in\u00a0many ways using diverse tools. One of the most effective and proven methods is the\u00a0ITIL framework<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0This approach is based on\u00a0many years of experience and accumulation of effective know-how in\u00a0this area.<\/p>\n There are also other methodologies facilitating the implementation of ITSM in\u00a0companies. They include\u00a0Microsoft Operations Framework, COBIT, DevOps and ISO 20000.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Providing IT services is a\u00a0complicated and time-sensitive process requiring coordination of many activities and collaboration betwen customer (internal and external) support departments, developer teams and IT operations specialists.<\/p>\n To\u00a0this end, the IT teams use the ITSM software to\u00a0make their operation more efficient and to\u00a0allow work organisation to\u00a0adapt to\u00a0and change in\u00a0line with the strategic business requirements.<\/p>\n Looking at\u00a0the range of tasks of any IT team, one may distinguish:<\/p>\n To\u00a0execute all these tasks in\u00a0our team we\u00a0need appropriately powerful tools to\u00a0support our work. One of the vendors providing a\u00a0suite of relevant solutions is\u00a0Atlassian<\/strong><\/a>, the supplier of flagship team collaboration platform called\u00a0Jira (Jira Core, Jira Software, and Jira Service Desk)<\/strong>\u00a0and many other software development tools.<\/p>\n Atlassian tools are a\u00a0solution focused on\u00a0effective teamwork, supporting the delivery of IT services<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The first one we\u00a0should list is\u00a0Jira Service Desk<\/strong>, one of the best-known solutions supporting the delivery of IT services.<\/p>\n Jira Service Desk is state of the art customer service desk software providing the team with a\u00a0comprehensive set of functions for\u00a0self-service, automation of selected agent task, SLAs and CSAT reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n Fig. 1. A\u00a0dialogue box of Jira Service Desk. Jira Service Desk is\u00a0<\/strong>ITIL certified by\u00a0PinkVerify<\/strong>\u00a0and Axelos for all four processes \u2013 request fulfillment, incident resolution, problem and change management.<\/strong><\/p>\n Fig. 2. Jira Service Desk in\u00a0PinkVERIFY\u2122 2011 Toolsets<\/p>\n Jira Service Desk is a\u00a0support tool working with the\u00a0Jira<\/strong>\u00a0platform. This allows easy connection of teams of various specialties (support personnel, engineers, developers, and even the business teams).<\/p>\n Using the Atlassian products, our support teams organise their work in\u00a0Jira Service Desk, the developer teams in\u00a0Jira Software, and the business teams can use the Jira Core.\u00a0All these tools are tightly integrated and allow the teams to\u00a0swiftly share information and stay in\u00a0touch all the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jira Service Desk provides:<\/strong><\/p>\n With Jira Service Desk, we\u00a0may customise the portal name, its logo and messages so that the customer feels at\u00a0home and is not lost in\u00a0a\u00a0flood of information. Also, the communication language should be\u00a0straightforward and easy to\u00a0understand, also enriched with icons symbolising specific topic areas. This is an important part of customising this tool for our own needs.<\/p>\n The transparency of the interface of Jira Service Desk simplifies the identification of important information. With a\u00a0glance at\u00a0a\u00a0request, you can see who is responsible for its handling and its current status. Persons submitting an incident receive a\u00a0confirmation email allowing them to\u00a0get in\u00a0touch with the agent handling their request.<\/p>\n Jira Service Desk has a\u00a0smart\u00a0tagging function<\/strong>\u00a0(@mention<\/em>) that when used in\u00a0a\u00a0request will automatically notify the agent specialising in\u00a0a\u00a0given area or\u00a0other persons that may be\u00a0of help in\u00a0handling the request.<\/p>\n Jira Service Desk has a\u00a0powerful automation mechanism that helps the agents in\u00a0resolving the most common problems that may also\u00a0automatically become issues in\u00a0Jira<\/strong>\u00a0while preserving the key functions of this platform.<\/p>\n The automation rules also apply to\u00a0the most popular\u00a0ticket types<\/strong>. All this to\u00a0avoid performing repetitive tasks caused by\u00a0requests concerning the same issue.<\/p>\n Automation in\u00a0Jira Service Desk allows the use of\u00a0preconfigured templates<\/strong>\u00a0that allow the creation of new non-standard rules to\u00a0match the specifics of incoming tickets.<\/p>\n With smart automation rules, everyone involved in\u00a0resolution receives an e-mail with an SLA status notification.<\/p>\n Analysing what is happening inside Jira Service Desk is possible with the advanced reporting function. It allows us to\u00a0track at\u00a0any time the operation of our IT team. The reports generated show the trends of events requiring customer support interventions, type of requests resolved and their resolution times.<\/p>\n The information from the report may be\u00a0important in\u00a0the context of how many most frequent requests had top priorities in\u00a0the context of SLA and if they were met.<\/strong><\/p>\n The concept of service level agreements (SLA) refers to\u00a0the guaranteed levels of providing IT services to\u00a0customers and ensures that their quality matches customer requirements. Keeping a\u00a0high level of IT services involves the constant cycle that includes:<\/p>\n When developing the catalogue of services provided, they are grouped into individual categories that together constitute the definition of service the precise parameters of which are put in\u00a0an SLA.<\/p>\n Most of the SLAs consist of time-related data that track how fast the agents perform the service, so it makes sense to\u00a0set the task queues in\u00a0a\u00a0way giving priority in\u00a0the request queues to\u00a0the requests significant to\u00a0the terms and conditions of the relevant SLA.<\/p>\n The SLA timers define the time needed for a\u00a0request resolution or\u00a0provide the time in\u00a0which the initial response is to\u00a0be\u00a0expected. They also include an interesting feature for expanding their functionality with other targets. This employs the use of the\u00a0JQL<\/strong>\u00a0language for creation of rules based on\u00a0defined parameters.<\/p>\n This allows an individual approach to\u00a0specific customer support rules in\u00a0line with the SLAs concluded with them. For example, resolution time for customer X\u00a0may be\u00a06 hours while for customer Y\u00a0only 3 hours.<\/strong><\/p>\n As\u00a0the IT services environment is changing dynamically and every transformation in\u00a0an organisation results in\u00a0a\u00a0new reality, not all changes turn out to\u00a0be\u00a0good for organisations. That\u2019s why it makes sense to\u00a0identify and investigate their reasons.<\/p>\n A\u00a0well-organised change management process stabilises the services provided by\u00a0the IT teams, making them more predictable and reliable. ITIL offers a\u00a0proper workflow for change management.<\/p>\n ITIL categorises changes as\u00a0standard, normal and emergency change\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014\u00a0<\/strong>and each of them involves an appropriately tailored process. Jira Service Desk allows management of all change types.<\/strong><\/p>\n The relevant Jira Service Desk templates contain workflows compliant with ITIL best practices.<\/strong> The teams may use the type of request as\u00a0resulting from the ITIL classification, thus the workflow in\u00a0case of a\u00a0specific request will follow the template for an emergency, normal or\u00a0standard change.<\/p>\n Approval of individual stages follows the rules designed by\u00a0the process responsible manager. The element concerned by\u00a0the change may be\u00a0selected using a\u00a0drop-down list.<\/p>\n The workflow in\u00a0Jira Service Desk may look as\u00a0following:<\/strong><\/p>\n Fig. 3. An example ITIL compliant workflow in\u00a0Jira Service Desk<\/em><\/p>\n Interestingly, in\u00a0the entire process, the\u00a0approvers do\u00a0not need to\u00a0have a\u00a0licence for Jira Service Desk<\/strong>.\u00a0They may make approvals using the customer portal. This saves organisations the cost of extra licences.<\/strong><\/p>\n An additional solution includes automation of reminders about pending approval requests so that dedicated approvers do\u00a0not slow down the entire IT service delivery process.<\/p>\n Finally, the changes may be\u00a0linked to\u00a0incidents or\u00a0problems, providing the big picture of change implementation progress.<\/p>\n Integration of Jira Service Desk with Confluence allows for self-service operation of the portal, letting the customers resolve incidents by\u00a0themselves.\u00a0By\u00a0integrating the Jira Service Desk with Confluence we\u00a0make it easier for ourselves to\u00a0create information pages relating to\u00a0the topic of incoming requests.\u00a0<\/strong>Atlassian products offer document flow compliant with the ITIL certificate or\u00a0their tracking using the Team Calendars function.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0Atlassian, integrating Jira Service Desk with Confluence allows reducing the number of requests by\u00a045%. All it takes is adding the Confluence knowledge base that will display information when a\u00a0new request submission attempt is made.<\/p>\n This allows customers to\u00a0possibly reach the solutions themselves without involving our service agents.<\/p>\n Learn how to\u00a0integrate Jira Service Desk with Confluence, contact our expert.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n ITIL defines an incident as\u00a0an unplanned interruption that will or\u00a0may cause a\u00a0reduction in\u00a0the quality of an IT service. Incident management is a\u00a0process aimed at\u00a0returning the regular IT service (defined, for instance, as\u00a0system availability or\u00a0performance) as\u00a0quickly as\u00a0possible and at\u00a0the same time minimising the impact of this event on\u00a0business operations or\u00a0the convenience of customer\u2019s work.<\/p>\n The characteristic trait of incident management is that we\u00a0are looking for temporary short-term solutions consisting of doing everything possible to\u00a0return the service as\u00a0soon as\u00a0possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n When considering event (incident) management, we\u00a0have to\u00a0bear in\u00a0mind that if they have a\u00a0common denominator \u2013 a\u00a0common root of a\u00a0malfunction, then in\u00a0fact we\u00a0are already dealing with a\u00a0problem.\u00a0A\u00a0problem is typically the cause of one or\u00a0more reported incidents.<\/strong><\/p>\n For instance, unexpected shutdown of an application on\u00a0our phone is an incident. If, however, this situation will become repeatable and additionally will affect other applications, then we\u00a0may be\u00a0talking about a\u00a0problem, for example, of an outdated operating system that starts generating these incidents. The decision as\u00a0to\u00a0what is the problem is made by\u00a0the customer support staff.<\/em><\/p>\n Recording, resolving and investigating interruptions resulting from a\u00a0non-functioning service is an important element of ITIL practices. Correctly designed workflows in\u00a0Jira Service Desk are aimed at\u00a0reducing outages and offsetting the negative impact of incidents on\u00a0customer satisfaction levels.<\/p>\n Jira Service Desk allows us to\u00a0create and implement our own workflow for the incident management process and assign every report to\u00a0defined categories.<\/strong><\/p>\n Incident management process in\u00a0Jira Service Desk:<\/strong><\/p>\n Assigning incidents with the severity criteria allows\u00a0selecting major events\u00a0<\/strong>that require the relevant commitment by\u00a0the IT teams.<\/p>\n This allows us to\u00a0improve the level of services in\u00a0specific areas by\u00a0implementing additional improvements or\u00a0protective mechanisms in\u00a0the process.<\/p>\n This kind of workflow in\u00a0the course of incidents is ITIL strategy compliant.\u00a0Jira Service Desk offers the agents full flexibility in\u00a0adapting the workflows to\u00a0specific needs of organisations and customers.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jira Service Desk offers the possibility of automating certain tasks in\u00a0compliance with the SLA. \u00a0For example, resolved incidents may be\u00a0automatically closed in\u00a0three working days after their removal by\u00a0an agent. Jira Service Desk also allows hooking-up event information resources from other projects\/departments, and even other applications, such as\u00a0Jira Software and Confluence.<\/p>\n This is particularly useful when work on\u00a0problem resolution continues on\u00a0higher levels of support. The current status of progress of work on\u00a0the incident may be\u00a0automatically (using the\u00a0Update\u00a0<\/em>function) published as\u00a0an automated comment to\u00a0the incident record on\u00a0the update status (together with the link to\u00a0the request in\u00a0Jira so as\u00a0to\u00a0keep everyone interested informed about problem resolution).<\/p>\nWhat is ITSM?<\/h2>\n
ITIL compliant IT management<\/h2>\n
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Atlassian tools that facilitate ITIL compliant ITSM system management<\/h2>\n
What is Jira Service Desk?<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soflab.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Jira-Service-Desk-screen-1-1024x719-1.png\")
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Source:\u00a0atlassian.com<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soflab.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Jira-Service-Desk-screen2-1-1024x389-1.png\")
<\/figure>\nWhat does Jira Service Desk provide?<\/h2>\n
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Communication using Jira Service Desk<\/h3>\n
Automation in\u00a0Jira Service Desk<\/h3>\n
Reporting in\u00a0Jira Service Desk<\/h2>\n
SLAs<\/h2>\n
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Change management<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soflab.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Jira-Service-Desk-przeplyw-pracy_EN-1024x207-1.png\")
<\/figure>\nIntegration of Jira Service Desk with Confluence<\/h2>\n
Incident and problem management in\u00a0Jira Service Desk<\/h2>\n
An incident or\u00a0a\u00a0problem?<\/h3>\n
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