JIRA Service Desk introduces a number of new user types. Under the hood, these user types are mapped to the following new project roles created by the JIRA Service Desk when it is installed:
- Agent: These are members of the service desk team that work on requests. Agents are added to the Service Desk Team project role.
- Customer: These are end users that will be submitting requests through your help desk portal. Customers are added to the Service Desk Customers project role.
- Collaborator: These are the other JIRA users that are not usually members of your service desk team, but can help solve customer problems. Collaborators are added to the Service Desk Team project role.
Agents are JIRA users that will be working on customer requests in JIRA Service Desk. These are usually members of your support team. Agents consume the JIRA Service Desk licenses. To add an agent to a service desk, do the following:
- Browse to the service desk you want to add an agent to.
- Click on the Invite team option on the left panel.
- Search and add users you want to invite as an agent (member) of your service desk team. You can select and add more than one agent. Click on the Invite button:
When adding an agent to a service desk, you can select an existing user in JIRA, which will grant the user access to the service desk. If the user you want to add as an agent does not exist, you can also create a new JIRA account and add him/her as an agent in one step by typing in the user's e-mail address. An e-mail will be sent out with a link to set his/her password. New user accounts created this way will be automatically added to the jira-servicedesk-users group and Service Desk Team project role. Refer to Chapter 9, Securing JIRA, for more information on groups and roles.
Customers are end users that will be creating requests through your customer portal. You can manually invite customers or allow them to sign up themselves. JIRA Service Desk requires customers to have an account to submit requests. The good news is that customers do not consume the JIRA Service Desk licenses. To invite a customer to a service desk, perform the following steps:
- Browse to the service desk you want to add a customer.
- Select the Customers option from the left panel.
- Click on the Invite customers button.
- Enter the e-mail addresses of customers to invite and click on the Send invites button.
E-mails will be sent out to customers with details on how to access the customer portal and steps to create an account if necessary.
If you want to allow users to sign up themselves, you will need to set your service desk to Everyone can access and enable the Anyone can sign up option, as shown in the following screenshot. If you want to restrict your service desk to only a list of pre-approved customers, then you will need to select the Only people on my customer list can access my Customer Portal option:
Collaborators are JIRA users that are not part of your support team (not agents), but have expert knowledge and understanding in the domain area that can assist agents to diagnose and solve customer requests. In JIRA Service Desk, collaborators are users in the Service Desk Team project role but not in the jira-servicedesk-users group, and adding a user as a collaborator is an easy way to grant that user access to your service desk project. Collaborators do not consume JIRA Service Desk licenses.
To add a collaborator to your service desk, following these steps:
- Browse to the project administrator page for the service desk you want to add a collaborator to.
- Select the Users and roles option from the left panel.
- Click on the Add users to a role link.
- Search and select the users to add, choose the Service Desk Team role, and click on the Add button.
When making a user a collaborator, you are simply granting permission for the user access to your service desk, so he/she can view, comment, and add attachments to the request.