In small organizations, there is usually no more than one Jira, Servicedesk, and Confluence installation, which everyone uses, from security guards to QA. How to make sure everything is safe here. In the sense that non-privileged users have quick access directly from applications to the wiki and do not climb where they should not, and administrators are not distracted from work in order to answer the same question for the hundredth time.
So, we have Jira Service Desk and Confluence. There is a portal for staff that allows you to make applications on a variety of occasions. There are administrators who execute applications. And there is a desire to document all types of applications by the type of “how is it” and “what to write here”.
Why ServiceDesk and not Jira Software? Because to create applications in ServiceDesk you do not need a license – just add customers to the necessary departments (organizations). A license is needed only for those who will process applications. This alone allows you to “digitize” the work of the IT department. And if you subscribe to the cloud version, it’s generally beauty.
Why Confluence? Yes, for the same reasons, you get a product that works out of the box and is integrated into Jira. The server version is installed in half an hour, the cloud – in a couple of minutes. Ready-made templates, access rights system, and programmers love her
It is further assumed that you have a semi-finished project in ServiceDesk with several types of requests. And you need to provide accountant Maria with online documentation on filling out the form.
- Create a separate Namespace in Confluence
This is optional, but it’s easier to group all the articles related to ServiceDesk in one place. I would also recommend a separate root for all help articles, but this will be convenient for you.
- Create articles to help fill out forms
I use the generic How-To article template. Everything is structured there for us, you just need to describe the purpose of the form at the beginning and the form fields in the form of a list.
It is important for each article to give a unique label that applies only to this type of application. I use the projectname-tickettype template so you won’t get confused.
It is important that the articles are without Restrictions.
- Go to the project properties (Project Settings) in ServiceDesk and click Knowledge Base
We link to the Confluence Space created in step 1. In the Access field, select everyone who has access to the Service Desk. For each type of ticket, the desired label is indicated (all labels must be different, otherwise customers will see too many articles).
- Click on Request Types
In the current version of ServiceDesk, it’s not an obvious possibility to use exactly the same markup in the signature (Description) of the request type as in the Ticket Description. Therefore, for each type of application we make similar to this Description:
Application for installation of new equipment ^ _ [help | url] _ ^
As a result, we get a small link in the application’s signature, such as a book link, by clicking on which the user will immediately receive a description of the application and how to fill in the fields in a separate browser window.
What to take as url?
There is a little trick here. In order for an unprivileged user to get into Confluence, he needs a kind of token from Jira, which tells Confluence that information can be displayed. To generate it, you need to create an application of the desired type with a couple of words from the article. Jira will automatically add a link to the Confluence article to the ticket page. When you hover over it, the Share button will appear on the right. Click on it and in the comment you will see the desired url, which will only be copied into the application signature.
Result
Privileged users with no monthly costs per person have access to a modern application management system. Administrators use their beloved Jira and generate help articles in familiar Confluence. Users do not need to be trained, just show once. Everyone is happy.
P.S. in addition to the link in the signature to the application, you can generate a bunch of articles related to each type of application, after reading which administrators will be bothered even less. It is enough to use the same label that you generated in step 2. Then, when filling out the Summary field and switching to another html element, ServiceDesk will look for the Summary text among the articles with this label and show the results.