how do i identify customers

[Daniel Jarrett]

My business is centered around a single application which we provide for a variety of customers.  Most customers will have their own set of features or requirements which are built in to the core application.  I'd like to be able to track the progress of any feature/bug fix/story etc.. for any particular client. 

Is there a standard way of identifying a customer or client in jira?  In the past I used tags/labels, but this was too loose, and now I'm using Epics, which don't seem to me the right approach.

Any tips on this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The fact you've said tags/labels suggests that you're not using the word "customer" to describe a JIRA user account.  So the question is what do you actually want a "customer" to be in JIRA?  Something on an issue?  A project?  An issue themselves you can link an issue to?

The reason I ask is that the two "standard" ways to describe a "customer" in JIRA would be either as a user or as a custom field (possibly a component, but usually a single or multi-select field) that is set on issues to say "this issue affects that customer".  But I'm not sure either of those are what you mean.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

OK.  I can't see another way to do this easily and smoothly.  The best I can think of is:

• Have a separate project called "customer"
• Each issue in there represents one customer, and you can add fields for more information about the customers
• You can link issues to customers with the standard link functions

But

• Links are a bit of a faff to add to an issue - they're not a simple field
• This is weak on the reporting because JIRA doesn't have great reporting on links.  So I'd add a scripted custom field that pulls the links to the customer project out explicitly so you can report on them

Another option would be a similar project for customers, but with some code that adds/changes/disables options in a multi-select list which exists for all your issues.  It's probably more reportable than links.

[Daniel Jarrett]

Thanks Nic!  

• The fact you've said tags/labels suggests that you're not using the word "customer" to describe a JIRA user account.   Correct,  We might have maybe 20 plus customers, and i simply just want a way of identifying their association with an issue.
• So the question is what do you actually want a "customer" to be in JIRA?  Something on an issue?  A project?  An issue themselves you can link an issue to?  I want to basically have something on an issue which i can use to associate with a customer.

As I mentioned in my first message, I'm using Epics to group customers.  I know this is the wrong way to do this, but it might help you understand what I'm after by explaining the reason why I chose this solution. 

Basically I want a really easy way of creating a new customer, as well as a simple way of selecting a customer when creating an issue.  I liked the feature in the Plan view of the scrum board where i can select an Epic (or a customer) and see all tasks associated with that customer,  this quick reporting feature was the reason why i wanted to make the association.

So what I'm after is:

1. A place where i can create a list of customers (much like, epics, themes, initiatives) and easily add new customers to this list.
2. An easy way of adding/associating one or more (epics didn't allow for more than one) customer with an issue.
3. A quick and simple way of listing the status of all issues for a customer (within a sprint, open/closed)