Jira Service Management FAQ

Jira Software is purpose built specifically for software teams. Jira Software combines powerful developer tool integrations with the most important elements of agile development.

Jira Service Management is purpose built for your IT and service teams, providing them with everything they need out of the box for incident, change and problem management.

Agents are users who help resolve customer requests, which appear as issues in Jira Service Management.  

Agents can:

• Access both the customer portal and the Jira Service Management interface in Jira Service Management
• View the customer portal, queues, reports and SLA metrics for the Jira Service Managements they have access to 
• Access and edit issues in the Jira Service Managements they are assigned to
• Add, edit and delete customer-facing and private comments to issues
• Manage content in the knowledge base

An agent consumes one Jira Service Management license.

Customers are users who create requests through the customer portal or by email. Customers do not have access to the Jira Service Management project view used by Jira administrators or Jira Service Management agents. Customers can:

• Create, comment on, and track requests through the customer portal
• Create and comment on requests via email
• Add comments and attachments to requests
• Add other participants to their own requests

Customers do not require a Jira Service Management license or Jira user license, so you aren't limited to a certain number of customers who can create requests through your Jira Service Management.

Let's define: Who's an agent and who's a customer?

An agent is anyone responding to an incoming ticket. You only pay for agent licenses, and nothing else.
With a single license of Jira Service Management, you get unlimited customers, and can create unlimited projects. 

A customer is anyone who submits a ticket to your Jira Service Management team. They can be employees, external end users, anyone who needs help from your team. 
Customers in Jira Service Management are always free, and always unlimited. 

Jira application users without a Jira Service Management license (e.g. Jira Software developers) can assist your team of agents on issues by working in the unlicensed view of a Jira Service Management project. 

These users can:

• View issues, comments and attachments
• Add and delete their own attachments
• Add and delete their own internal comments 
• Watch and vote for issues

These users cannot:

• See Jira Service Management queues, reports, and customers list
• Leave an external comment viewable by a Jira Service Management customer
• Log work on a Jira Service Management issue
• Transition a Jira Service Management issue
• Be assigned to a Jira Service Management issue

Still have questions on how roles and licensing works? Read on.

While coupling Jira Service Management with Jira Software is the best way to use Jira Service Management, it's not a deal breaker. You can use Jira Service Management as a standalone product.

No, you do not need to have the same number of Jira Software and Jira Service Management licenses. You can select and pay for what you need with each product.

Jira Service Management can be integrated with Confluence's knowledge base capabilities, so agents can create, view, and share knowledge articles directly from the Jira Service Management issue they're working on. The knowledge articles your team creates help customers find solutions before raising requests in the customer portal or help center.

Server trials are 30 days by default, which you can extend up to 90 days of evaluation. If you need extra time on your Cloud 7-day free trial, give us a shout.