Azure DevOps for Jira - using a service principal

[James Noble]

We've just implemented Azure DevOps for Jira (the official Atlassian integration), and all is working fine.

However, I found it odd that auth to ADO was done just using a single user account (and personal access token). This means we need to give that account admin across all the ADO projects we want to integrate into Jira.

Obviously, we can create a service account (which is what we've done currently)... but that still feels a bit behind the times when you consider that Azure supports service principals.

Has anyone been able to work out how to get this integration using a service principal? Or is aware whether that is a roadmap item for this integration?

[Benjamin · Accepted solution]

HI James,

Although, I haven't use service principal myself. It maybe logically possible from the Azure DevOps side. Don't think you can get past the single user setup for the initial connection because that part of the configuration to get integration working. However, you might be able to provision a service principal and use the account to do the underlying operations. Then again, this might just overcomplicate things and it just might be simpler just to have a service account which you have already created. 

As for roadmap, I didn't see anything related to azure Dev Ops on the Atlassian roadmap. 

https://www.atlassian.com/roadmap/cloud

[Ankita Mehta]

Hi @James Noble

If you're looking to commits, pull requests, and defects between Jira and ADO, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• What exactly are you linking? If you're just looking to link commits and PRs, that's straightforward. But if you need defects created automatically during code reviews, you’ll need something that can handle that automatically, instead of doing it manually each time.
• Deeper Sync: Are you looking for a surface-level sync (like commit IDs) or do you need something deeper—like comments, attachments, and full change history? The more context you need, the more complex the sync gets.
• Bi-directional Sync: Don’t forget about syncing both ways. You’ll want the linked commits, PRs, and defects to be visible and updated in both Jira and ADO, which requires a solid integration that handles that.
• Plugins: A lot of plugins offer basic functionality, but they can have some downsides—like limited customization, possible conflicts with other tools, or issues with syncing more complex data (like comments or attachments). Plus, they often require constant updates and maintenance.

If you’re looking for something more automated and with less maintenance, you may consider an enterprise-grade integration solution and an Atlassian Solutions partner, OpsHub Integration Manager (OIM). It helps sync commits, PRs, defects, and even does deeper sync (comments, attachments, mentions, preserves context, hierarchies etc.). All this without writing a single line of code :)

Here is a YouTube video to watch the bidirectional integration via OIM in action

Drop us a line if you want to request a free demo or have any other questions!