is it allowed to use one jira-user account by several persons ?

[Gregory Kneller]

Hi, my users want to have one user account to arrange access to JIRA for different persons. The account they want, shall have project-administrator rights.

First question, Is it allowed by license agreement? 

Second, if yes, what would be the best argument to refuse request?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It would be a bad idea simply for tracking purposes.  If you have effectively anonymous adminstrators, you could have people stomping on each other's changes and zero record of who did what.

I always strongly recommend that while anonymous access is often great for sharing, it's never to be used for any form of write access.   Especially admin of any type.

[Rob Horan]

For tracking they could use a single select combo box to choose an identity - this assumes this is legal.

[Sam Hall]

Just to add to this answer to cover the first question...

If you are using Atlassian Cloud, the End User Agreement does state:

7.3 Credentials. You must ensure that all Authorized Users keep their user IDs and passwords for the Hosted Services strictly confidential and not share such information with any unauthorized person. User IDs are granted to individual, named persons and may not be shared. 

For server, there is no such clause as far as I can see, but have a look yourself.

The licensing documentation here has a pretty general definition: https://confluence.atlassian.com/purchasing/how-are-users-defined-321848661.html

A user is defined as an account with permission to log into the application.

You could ask Atlassian directly here: https://www.atlassian.com/company/contact/purchasing-licensing or via a support ticket here: https://support.atlassian.com/customer/servicedesk-portal

As Nick has said, using a single user account for multiple people, particularly admins, will cause tracking problems. One of the strengths of JIRA is clear ownership of issues, and clear history of who has touched/worked on issues. Allowing multiple people to log in using the same user account will erode this.

[Gregory Kneller]

Thank you for the response. I know that it is not a good idea at all. I just need a formal reason to rejected this requirement. I administer JIRA Server.

[Rob Horan]

The formal reason is it almost certainly violates the EULA, as well as auditing events down to individuals difficult, if not impossible.  

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>For tracking they could use a single select combo box to choose an identity

Nothing to stop them ignoring it or lying, which is not what I'd call "tracking".  I was thinking more of the auditing functions.  Recording "stuffed up the system: anonymous" really doesn't cut it

You're bang on about the EULA of course.  I've only ever skimmed it before, but it is a lot more clear than I'd thought.

[Rob Horan]

I can't imagine that this would be legal.  I assume it's like sharing your paid video subscription  streaming account (which I cannot name as my response will be rejected but it rhymes with MetTrix) sure you might not get caught, but its not permitted.  If you're ever audited for any reason this could be problematic.

The only people who can tell you for sure though are the team members at Atlassian.  You should contact them directly.