The path to more Transparency in IT with Jira Software

Greater transparency in IT and with external service providers - this was the challenge facing a large financial services provider with around 17,000 consultants in operation. The IT department was already working with Jira software from Atlassian. Nevertheless, there was always a lack of transparency. Together with catworkx, Jira software was introduced and further developed across the company over a project period of six years, among other things for mapping action management, for time recording in IT, and for collaboration with external service providers. In the next step, Jira software was also used in the IT line departments and central specialist departments.

Jira Software is known for its flexible application options. A large financial services provider was already using the tool to support IT planning for project and process tracking. Nevertheless, questions remained unanswered: Which orders is IT currently processing for which customer? What are the priorities and responsibilities? How much effort is involved in the projects?

The restructuring initially involved clearly separating all customer activities and projects from the IT department's activities and projects. Each activity was assigned a unique issue type, and clear titles contributed to unambiguous assignment – both internally and externally. New areas of responsibility were also created. The Key Account Manager became the first point of contact in the new process, assigning priorities to projects and activities that they had previously developed with the customer. When using Jira Software's Kanban boards, Quick Filters help the Key Account Manager to structure the ranking of activities, providing clarity to IT about the importance of an issue. The ranking can also be displayed in the IT portfolio using corresponding filters.

The next process level is the responsibility of the Product Manager. In requirements management, they describe which changes should be made to which applications. 

The Requirement Engineer prepares information and forwards it to the suppliers for final implementation via corresponding Change Requests.

The solution approach developed by catworkx included the entire requirements gathering and processing, right through to implementation and integration into Jira Software.

A field that displays contact persons in Jira Software also contributed to increased transparency. By using the "Insight" app, all contact persons – from the customer's specialist department to internal IT – can be easily displayed on a database basis, and dependencies can be derived with graphical support. To assign an issue to a contact person from a specialist department, the range of assignees can be expanded using the "Elements Copy & Sync" app via drag & drop.

Another challenge in the change process was the grouping of the customer base. This grouping makes it easier for the board of directors to quickly identify schedule delays or other difficulties and to act proactively. The new structures help to achieve a clean cost allocation. Relevant information needs to be inherited in the workflow. With the help of an app developed by catworkx, the cost information and the ranking field can be inherited until completion. Pure time tracking, including monthly overviews and monthly closing, is recorded with the "Tempo Timesheets" app. The "eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira" app provides the platform for data transfer to create IT and customer reports. Controlling further processes the data.

IT is currently benefiting – because now only implementations can be carried out that include a clear description of the requirements on the ticket. The assignment of names for contact persons in various IT projects provides valuable guidance in the Jira issue. The stored workflow provides information about the lifecycle status and thus creates the desired transparency. Controlling benefits from the ability to store cost centers. Conclusion: Jira Software has successfully become the central control tool!