ChatOPS and its future in JSM

[Gabriel Lences]

Hi there,

I'd like to ask a question around integration of MS Teams with Jira Service Management. I know that for a while Jira Service Management had ChatOps integration for Incidents only, which seems very limited? Will integration between JSM and Teams be available for all issue types? What will its relation be to the new Jira Service Management AI-powered virtual agent | Atlassian that's being developed? I guess it will use the same Assist bot in MS Teams? 

I guess my question at the end of the day is - if we wanted to have a full integration between JSM and Teams for now without being restricted to the Incident issue type, does this mean we have to look for an addon for example - Microsoft Teams for Jira & JSM - Smart Connect | Atlassian Marketplace and later on waste the potential of the native chatops integration with the virtual agent or are there any plans for the native integration to be on par with the options of markeplace add-ons in terms of functionalities?

Thanks,

Gabe

[Brian Feldman · Accepted solution]

Hi @Gabriel Lences, ChatOps for Jira Service Management is for incidents only as you mentioned.

There is also Chat for Jira Service Management, powered by the Assist app in Microsoft Teams. Chat is a separate app, which does support all issue types within a service project, and is available to all Jira Service Management customers for free. I recommend checking it out!

Chat (aka Assist) is also what where you'll be able to integrate the Virtual Agent in the future. An open beta for the Virtual Agent in Slack will be launching later this year, with Microsoft Teams to follow. 

Let me know if you have additional questions! 

[Gabriel Lences]

Hi Brian, thanks a lot for the info I did know that Chat for Jira Service Management is available for projects but didn't know what it all encompasses.

What are the differences between the ChatOps and Chat For Jira Service Management? What value does each of them bring compared to the other? Is there any reason for the disparities or is it plan to have one ChatOps / Chat functionality somehow unified in the future? Seem a bit confusing for someone new coming to the system to have two different "chat" options available each of them with their own funcionality set and limitations.

Thanks, 

Gabe

[Brian Feldman]

Hey @Gabriel Lences , the primary differences are that Chat is primarily positioned to support service desk and service management use cases. For example, it enables help seekers to get help, raise requests, and fill out request forms without leaving chat. It also allows agents to receive incoming issues, swarm and triage them, and quickly respond to them without leaving chat. 

Whereas ChatOps is primarily positioned for Ops related use cases, with Incident Management being one of the key ones. Therefore it helps you to create a channel for an active incident where various stakeholders can swarm and collaborate in a "war-room" type manner. 

So generally speaking, they each zero in a different set of use cases for different audiences. I do agree that this can lead to confusion, and it is something that has come up on numerous occasions in both internal and external conversations! 

[Gabriel Lences]

Great! Thanks for the explanation, now it's a bit clearer ;) 

One more question: I saw a demo of the Chat for Jira Service Management functionality and noticed help seekers could submit the request type forms through the bot interface. Does the bot support Forms fields in the interface? If not , is this something which you'll be looking at? Since I guess it can be very limiting if someone has almost 90% of the request types built through Forms and then the Teams chat assistant can't pull those fields in :)

[Brian Feldman]

Hey @Gabriel Lences , can you clarify your question? Are you asking if the demo showcased actual functionality? Or are you referring to a different type of form interface than was was in the demo? I'm also not certain which demo you saw so can reference specifics.

In general, yes: JSM Chat via the Assist bot can present request forms to the help seekers directly within Slack & Teams, allowing them to complete them via an input collection modal. Note however that not 100% of field types are supported, nor are ProForma forms. You can find a list of supported field types here! 

For most general cases, users can complete request forms directly from Slack or Teams via an input collection modal that Assist will present. 

[Gabriel Lences]

@Brian Feldman  my apologies if the question wasn't clear, I was indeed reffering to the ProForma forms actually, but I see you answerred they aren't supported.

Is this something which will be looked at in the future? It seems like a huge waste to not have the power of dynamic inputs supported by the Assist bot and seems a bit unusable in a scenario if one has most of their request types built through Proforma Forms🙂

[Brian Feldman]

Hey @Gabriel Lences , we don't have current plans for it, but it is something that's come up from time to time. Here's a related feature request ticket you can track and/or add onto! 

[Gabriel Lences]

Thank you very much for all the info, upvoted the request ticket 😊

[John Funk]

@Jehan Gonsalkorale