as a Support Platform

Tony Atkins <aatkins@atlassian.com>NL AUG, 09/02/2012

Helpdesk Needs

• Manage communication

• Keep track of what requires action

• Provide reports

A Tale of Two JIRAs

Communication (Good)• Incoming

• Web Interface

• Email

• Outgoing

• Web

• Email

• Jabber (plugin)

Communication (Bad)• Format of outgoing emails

needs work (stay tuned)

• Email configuration and administration of email needs work

• Administration of notifications needs work

What requires action?• Statuses for each actor

• Incoming

• Waiting for Customer

• Waiting for Engineer

• Escalations, etc.

• Conditional transitions

• Filters

• Incoming issues waiting for engineers

• Personal issues

• Assigned issues in trouble

SLAs• Problem

• No built-in concept of an SLA

• Difficult to visualize “time to SLA” for a range of issues

• Solutions

• Filters and Notifications

• Custom Fields

• SQL reports

• Custom gadgets

Ranking• Problem

• Can only order by one or more fields

• No complex weighting and ordering

• Same order for all users

• Solutions

• Custom fields

• Custom gadgets

Friendly Fire• Problem

• JIRA can’t assign to a group

• No real “locking” of issues

• Easy to assign issues out from under each other

• Solutions

• “Who’s Looking” plugin: http://bit.ly/zY2R6m

• Dedicated Dispatcher or Triager

Reporting• Real-time

• User-created

• Shareable

• Graphs and Charts

Reporting Challenges• Problem

• Source data is a list of issues (not users or groups)

• Limited ability to group data

• Limited time tracking

• Solutions

• SQL reports

• Custom gadgets

No Code Required

Custom Workflows

Built-in Custom fields

JIRA Toolkit plugin

Built-in mail handlers

Some Code Required

SQL reports

Beanshell reports

Major Coding Required

Javascript + Custom Fields

Custom2 Fields

Jelly (for auto-transitions)

Custom mail handlers

“Hercules” log scanner

Jabber plugin

Wallboard plugin

Wallboard Plugin

Wallboard Plugin• Started with SQL reports in

Confluence

• Transitioned to Beanshell (some Java) and SQL, still in Confluence

• Transitioned to a portlet that uses SQL on the back end

• In the process of transitioning to a gadget backed by custom fields and REST.

Questions?

Thanks for your time!