Implementation of JIRA software multiple teams in a large enterprise

[Surendra Meduri]

Hi

I have few teams less than 20 members and others ranging from 50-500+ users in a business groups.  Each business group need different  workflow processes, not collaboration within workflows between groups.  However to manage and maintain on premise server installation, what are best options:

1. Can Atlassian provides Server-Enterprise level instance with about 2000+ licenses (or)

2. Since each business group has different business processes support through workflows which need different customization/plug-ins, so having an instance for each BU  is only option ? (or)

3. Other suggestions

Appreciate any help on this matter

Thanks

SM

[Dave Theodore [Coyote Creek Consulting]]

There is only one license per instance.  You choose the license tier that is the next larger to the number of users on the system.

The tool can accommodate a different set of fields and screens, different permissions, workflows, etc per project.  I would recommend against setting things up this way for performance reasons, though. It also makes management a real pain. My hunch is that the teams probably have a fair amount of overlap, so having a governance discussion before building anything wouldn't be a bad idea.  This can be as simple as identifying a large group of users that largely follow the same process and declaring that others others are outliers. Create a standard Project "Template" for the majority and then give the outliers what they need. 

On the topic of Plugins/Add-ons/Apps (current name, they all mean the same thing,) they are generally licensed based on the license tier of Jira. This means, if you have a 2000 user Jira license, the App will need to match that tier of 2000 users. There are rare exceptions, but nearly all Apps match the hosting application.

[Surendra Meduri]

Thanks Dave for your response.

As a follow up, we have some business groups who would like to manage their instance of JIRA s/w - administer, configure or customize which other groups don't want to see or likes.  While I agree your statement of process consolidation which seems to be a challenge at this stage, for an IT organization to support quick and faster support of business needs.  

In this circumstances, only way is to go with different instances (a license per instance) ?

thanks

sm

[Dave Theodore [Coyote Creek Consulting]]

Jira is intended to be centrally managed. I have seen organizations that distribute administrator access, but I don't recommend it. You're really asking for the wild west and for inadvertent mistakes to be made if you choose to go that route.

On the topic of look and feel, such as "my team wants green and your team wants blue," you would need to go with separate instances.  There is no way to have a look and feel per user or team.  

It's not uncommon for us to see multiple instances of a tool within one company.  Sometimes it comes from rogue activity, sometimes it comes from mergers and acquisitions and sometimes it comes in the form of an officially sanctioned act.  It costs you a bit more to have multiple instances and it makes reporting more painful, but you wouldn't be alone if you go this route. Federating Jira may be of some value to you if you decide to implement more than one instance, but the cool Apps that let you copy issues to remote instances, etc are apparently not being maintained.

I guess that probably isn't what you were hoping to hear, but yes, you would need the appropriate sized license tier for each instance.  You can't buy one 2000 user license and allocate 250 to one instance, 500 to another, etc.

[Matthias Gaiser [K15t]]

Dave's arguments are valid and you have to decide for yourself which way you want to go - a big centralized instance or smaller distributed instances.

In case you go for different instances and have the need to still share some issues between instances, I'd like to contradict Dave and say that there are some issue sync solutions out there which are well supported and used by many customers. Of course, you have to decide yourself if the apps are cool :)

To be honest & open: I am part of such a solution: Backbone Issue Sync.

[Dave Theodore [Coyote Creek Consulting]]

Very true.  I didn't mention the ecosystem at all! What Matthias said :) 

[Surendra Meduri]

Thanks Matthias for sharing your experiences