How to get usage of installed plugins on jira instance

[RichardA]

Hi Team,

I need to get detailed information on Addons utilization in how many projects. so that we can decide to disable the plugins in my instance.

Is there any possibility to export Plugins functionality utilization in how many projects using REST APIs ?

Pls Suggest !

Thanks.

[Daniel Ebers · Accepted solution]

Hi @RichardA

adding to what Nic suggested (I can confirm his suggestion of just asking people is what works best in many cases!) I feel it depends on the type of App - is it a workflow enhancement? Then you can just look into all workflows (don't forget Validators, Conditions, Post Functions).

Is it something that enriches Dashboards? Could be tricky - there could be a lot. Announcing a deprecation of an App (via Announcement Banner or mail "as of x.x.2021 we won't support App XYZ any longer and uninstall it by x.x.2022") works probably - you could also deactivate some (after announcing that) and see if somebody raises a request with you telling something is behaving odd.

In my experience that worked many times in the past. It can come harsh but many users do not know which App a gadget on a dashboard is especially driven by or what enriches a workflow.

For other kind of Apps it could be much more complicated - is it an "export App"? Well, you will see users that are not able to export to Excel (or so) anymore.
Is it something else - working with custom fields maybe? Users will see filters failing or an expected calculation of fields not happening anymore.

To prevent surprises in my experience a strict documentation of all Apps is key - it gives you some insight who ordered it when, for what purpose and you have a contact to contact somebody in case you wan't/must get rid of it.

Also a very good approach turned out to have a test environment where Apps could be disabled - there you can check easily if something breaks.

If it is just for a calculation/assessment if an App is worth keeping it from my point of view it is much harder - how to measure value? I have seen Apps which are used by only a few people but being of extraordinary value - others are used by hundred of people where one might say, ok, it is nice that they have it but they could have achieved their goal differently (or even without any Apps).

Regards,
Daniel

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There is no way to do this.  Each app can inject functionality in all sorts of different ways, and the only way to know what is being used is to analyse what each one does and track down any usage by looking at configuration, logs or even just asking people. 

[RichardA]

Hi @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- , Thanks for your response :)

Is there any possibility to export Plugins functionality utilization in how many projects using REST APIs ?

Thanks !!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm afraid it's the same answer, and looking to REST can't help - to export the usage of an app, your REST API would have to know how to gather the information, and that means analysing how each app works and tracking actual usage of each function.