Enabling ITSM Comment and Status syncs for Jira
Last updated: October 7, 2024
Background
When configuring your AppStore, you may have connected your ITSM, unlocking the ability to log access request tickets to your ITSM, create tickets for custom requests, and even intercept them to route traffic to the Lumos AppStore. See these articles:
However, even if your end users prefer interacting with the Slack bot or our web UI to make requests, your IT team may mostly live out of your ITSM tool. By enabling bi-directional syncing, we can make sure that all the important details are seamlessly passed between Lumos and Jira, and allow your teams to work from where they want.
This includes:
Syncing Comments: Passing relevant comments between Lumos <-> Jira
Syncing Statuses: Updating state/transitions between Lumos <-> Jira
In order for this feature to work correctly, the Jira app for your organization must not be ignored and Jira accounts should be matched to users as completely as possible. If Lumos cannot match an action taken in Jira by a user (comment, status change) to a user in Lumos, the action will not be reflected in Lumos
Syncing Comments
When this is enabled, we can take Slack messages left in the Lumos access request threads and comment them on your generated Jira tickets. This also works in reverse - comments left on the Jira ticket will also surface on the Slack thread.
Screenshots of Jira -> Slack
Screenshots of Slack -> Jira
Steps
1. Enable ITSM.
2. Make sure "Intercept ITSM Requests" is enabled
At this time, the webhook to sync comments is tied to the same webhook to intercept ITSM requests, which is why this has to be enabled to enable comment syncing.
3. Now when you leave comments in Slack threads, they should appear as comments in Jira, and vice versa. ✅
Syncing Statuses
When this is configured, you can enable Lumos to move your Jira ticket to a specific status based on the current status of the request in Lumos. Previously, we only support one type of close transition, but now we support multiple - you just have to map them. 😊
Optionally, you can enable bi-directional status syncing, which allows us to progress the Lumos access request based on the status set on the Jira ticket. See more below for details!
Steps
1. Enable ITSM.
See 📄 Connecting Your ITSM
2. Make sure "Create Synced Tickets" is enabled
By default, we need to know how to resolve your ticket in Jira whenever requests are fully provisioned in Lumos. That is why we require the "Provisioned" state in Lumos to be mapped to a status in Jira.
If only the "Provisioned" status is mapped (and everything else is not set) we will take that as the default status to use for the other close transitions: "Denied", "Canceled", "Expired", etc.
3. (Optional) Click "Add Transitions..." to map additional states!
You cannot map a single Jira status to multiple Lumos transitions - you'll see already configured options as grayed out!
You'll need to toggle "Sync Bi-directionally" if you expect your help desk team to work out of Jira. If they expect to close tickets in Jira and expect that to close tickets in Lumos, you should make sure bi-directional syncing is enabled.
You can leave this off if you are primarily leveraging these mappings to log tickets to Jira.
FAQs
I've followed the steps above, but leaving a comment in Slack doesn't create a comment in Jira - what do I do?
You may not have granted Jira the required scopes to enable comment syncing. Please go to your integration page in Lumos and click "Reconnect" to ensure Lumos has the correct scopes to sync comments from Slack <-> Jira.
I've added a transition but I don't see it in Lumos, how do I make it appear?
You may need to "publish" your transition. Once you have published it from Jira, please refresh from the Lumos side!
My transitions aren't working properly, why is that?
In the workflow for your Jira projects, please make sure that the transitions are valid for your configuration. Not all Jira transitions can be performed one after another, so you may need to update your workflow to ensure that you've selected possible statuses for your transitions.
Will internal notes in Jira show up in Slack?
No, they will not! Only regular comments will appear in Slack.
If bi-directional status syncs are enabled and I move my ticket status, will it always move my Lumos request status?
Generally, yes! However, please keep in mind that Jira cannot move access requests back to a previous status in Lumos.
For example, say you have:
Lumos - Pending Approval mapped to Jira - Pending Approval
Lumos - Pending Provisioning mapped to Jira - Pending Provisioning
If you were to move the Jira ticket's status from Pending Provisioning -> Pending Approval, it would not update the Lumos request back to Pending Approval. When it comes to syncing today, Lumos requests can only move forward in state, they cannot move backwards.