Incidents - Fields: What are the differences between using the Component field and the Services fiel

[Gustavo Ezequiel Szemruck]

I have some doubts about the use of these fields, knowing that they have—or I believe they have—the same purpose. It's similar to using Urgency and Priority; both measure how quickly an issue should be resolved based on its level of importance.

So, knowing this, why are there fields with the same purpose? Do they differ in anything specific?

[Chrissy Clements · Accepted solution]

Hi @Gustavo Ezequiel Szemruck 

That's a great question!

Jira Components and Services serve different purposes but have some parallels:

• Components help you categorise work. They come in two types:

  • Project Components (within Jira Software or Jira Service Management) – Used to group issues within a single project.
  • Compass Components (in Atlassian Compass) – Represent software components like microservices, libraries, and applications.

• Services are typically used in JSM Operations (formerly Opsgenie) and Compass to represent key business or technical services.

  • In JSM, they enable features like automated risk assessments, change scheduling, and incident response.
  • In Compass, they represent the backbone of your distributed architecture, helping track dependencies and ownership.

While Components and Services have different roles, Atlassian is aligning these concepts more closely over time.

How to Decide?

• If you need work categorisation within a project, use Project Components.
• If you're tracking software architecture, use Compass Components.
• If you need service ownership, reliability tracking, or incident/change management, use Services.

[Gustavo Ezequiel Szemruck]

Hello @Chrissy Clements .

First of all, I want to sincerely thank you for the brief explanations about services and components, as well as their different uses in various situations.
Now I have a much better understanding of the purpose of these fields and how to make the most of them. That was precisely my goal since I’m designing a help desk and configuring the screens displayed for each type of incident. This question came up while I was setting things up, and the information I found wasn’t entirely clear to me.

[Chrissy Clements]

Best of luck, @Gustavo Ezequiel Szemruck 
Glad I could help :)