Jira Workmanagement - reporter vs creator vs agent

[Jan Šimek]

Hi,

I would like to find out about few things. 

We have a project for our agents, who are creating issues and these requests are then completed by different department.

But even though in details of issues I can find who created it, for some reason I do not have this person, who created the issue - who is our agent to display as reporter, which is causing us issues, as we cannot work properly with email notifications and also automation does not work properly, as no email coming to reporter side, as there is none.

Any help here regarding this?

Thank you

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Hi @Jan Šimek ,

firstly you mentioned Jira Work Management however you also mention agent which makes me wonder if you’re talking about Jira Service Management?

Secondly, I certainly understand the confusion when considering the reporter and creator fields.  While they seem like the same thing, and often they are, the purpose for having two is to accommodate opening on behalf of another individual. Again the only place I’ve seen this in use is with JSM when an agent opens an issue on behalf of a customer.

You should see these fields on your screen but if not please check your screens and add the fields as required. This can be done under project settings, screens. 

[Jan Šimek]

Hi @Jack Brickey

yes Work Management is what we are using currently as it comes with different project templates, which we are in need of. As I have created the workflow from scratch and anything else as well I am just wondering about this. 

Let me give you example: 

My colleague creates a request for something to be done. As the request continues my way and I have to setup some stuff in our internal system and then it continues along the workflow.

The use case in this certain example is that when my colleague is not responding or updating some of the requests (issues) I have created few of these automated notifications, which should be coming to his email, to remind him, that he should do something about the issue, or that the issue is completed etc. But as there can be multiple "creators" of the issue I do not want always to create automation, which works with exact email, but to have more summarized automation, which will send this notification to whoever is the one, who is creating this request (issue). And so as I have experienced, there are some situation, in which creator can take place and there are some, where only reporter can take place. As I have tried to fiend on the internet and on community, if no reporter stated, it always should be a creator and so then I am wondering, why the system is not able to recognize the person, who is creating the issue is also the reporter and then send the notification correctly. Also as I have find on internet, the reporter should be anybody who is in group of customers - which is actually funny, as there is no group "customers" at least i have not been able to find it. So i wonder for it work as it should, should I create a group called "customers" and insert my colleague into it for it to work correctly? But then again it does not make sense, as if creator of the request is my colleague, system knows his email address as there are email notification, which is system sending anyways. Do you have any workaround or help on this? Because I am just not able to figure it out effectivelly.

Thank you

[Jan Šimek]

Also I am inserting our issue, as you can see, there is reporter even though it is allowed in screens, so I am wondering...

[Jack Brickey]

So a few clarifying points here...

• in JWM "agents" do not exist at least not as defined by Atlassian 
• By default the person creating the issue will be captured in the Reporter field
• by default Creator is not part of JWM templates, at least in my  experience and current understanding

I would be interested in the results from the following JQL query

Issuekey = aur-48

choose to display Reporter and Creator columns.

it would be interesting to see your History of this issue as well.

[Jack Brickey]

BTW, you should be able to reference the Reporter in Automation.

[Jan Šimek]

I have never used JQL, so this is what I have found...

[Jan Šimek]

Also this is how the rule works... when the issue comes to this status it assign to issue creator - which it does correctly, but then i have to somehow let the person know, that they should do something about it, which means sending an email to reporter, because there is no option for issue creator... again not sure why. And as you can see, the audit log says, no actions were performed. It is actually kind of funny, because it does assign to correct creator, but it does not send an email. Do you get me?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

FWIW, the reporter and creator are both set in JWM projects. 

They're both automatically populated with the person with their paws on the keyboard, but you can choose another reporter if you put the field on the create screen (and grant the "modify reporter" permission in company managed projects)

Creator cannot be changed or edited - it's whole purpose is to capture who physically created the issue.

[Jack Brickey]

Thanks Nic. Question for you - under what conditions is Creator displayed on issues?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Annoyingly, on Cloud, it is not!  You can old see it in the old issue view, or by adding it as a column on the issue navigator.

[Jack Brickey]

Ok then I'm not crazy then, at least not about this. I recall seeing previously so it must have been in the old issue view.

[Jan Šimek]

So do you guys have any resolution for this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Given what the reporter and creator fields are for, I think you should be using the reporter as the target of the email, not the creator.

[Jack Brickey]

@Jan Šimek , when you create issues are you doing so from the create button? Assuming so do you have the reporter field on the Create screen. If you do not see it you might see ellipses in the upper right. If so please click and, if an option, choose find field. Search for Reporter and let me know results. 

[Jan Šimek]

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, you'll need to amend the field configuration that message is pointing to - you can click straight through to it from the link in the explanation message.  Find reporter in the list and you'll find it has a "show" or "un hide" option to the right.

[Jan Šimek]

Ok I think I understand, so the issue was, that as there were not this field, there was no possibility for these rules to work properly, correct?

[Jack Brickey]

Likely yes. In one of your images the reporter was empty so using for automation would not give you the desired results.