assign an issue to a group or a non-paying dummy user?

[Gil]

hi guys,

I know this was available in the server instance of Jira. But we are really missing this one on the cloud instance.
Sometimes we want to assign an issue to a dummy user, such as 'Dev Team', until someone from the dev team actually assigns the issue to themselves.
Or assign to a group.

The problem is that I cannot create such a user without paying for it in the cloud instance.

Also, we use Gitlab and we want Gitlab to integrate with Jira in such a way that when commits or merge requests are happening, we get a Jira comment added by Gitlab.

That was possible in the server instance, but again not in the cloud instance.

Is there a workaround for this issue?

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

1. Create a “team” field with a single-select
2. leave “unassigned” to equate to triage
3. setup filters and dashboard if desired or even Kanban per team that leverages the team field 

[John Funk]

I second this as that's the solution we have used in a couple of projects. 

[Gil]

@Jack Brickey thanks for the suggestion.

If using the custom field, are you able to incorporate it into your workflow?

i.e. - as a post function, to assign to someone/group?

It's an interesting solution though

[Jack Brickey]

@Gil , you can use the custom field in a PF however, you can’t assign to a “group”. My intention here was to use unassigned as the triage queue and the teams would monitor and keep that list empty by assigning each issue to a single user and/or set the Team custom field to the appropriate team. If the Team field is set and the issue is unassigned then it is up to the team to scrub their list and get it assigned.

[Gil]

What do you mean by 'queue'? We're using a scrum jira project and to me it sounds like you refer to a column of unassigned issues.

[Jack Brickey]

Sorry,  I shouldn’t of misused the term queue here. What I mean to say is  that you can use the team custom field to create a custom filter for each team. Now if you want to use this on a scrum board you could use swim lanes per team with any not assigned to a team swim lane  falling into the everything else  swim line.  Alternatively you can use quick filters using the team custom field.

[Gil]

I'll just add that if someone doesn't want to create a custom field, then you can still:

1. invite a dummy user, i.e. developers@YourDomain.com
2. then in the Permission scheme of your project, add Assignable user permission to this dummy user.

Works as I need for my cause.

Thanks!

[Salomon]

Seems to work!

I did it like this: I created a group where I assigned all department-dummy-users to. I ensured that these users are users of Jira Software but are only in that group (not the jira-software-users group).

I edited the permission scheme of my project (in my case the default permission scheme, because I want it for all projects like this) and granted access for the group for "Assignable User" permission.

In the billing section these users seem to be not counted!

Thanks for sharing :)

[Ignas Selvestravičius]

@Gil but in that way you still have to pay for that dummy user, right? The license is required for it?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

If you want to make any use of a dummy (like naming it in fields like assignee), you will need to licence the "user" as though they are a real person.

[Gil]

@Ignas Selvestravičius that is correct.

It's something I wish Atlassian will provide some solution for in the future.

[Rizwan Rizvi]

@Salomon how id you provide access to jira software for the group?

I tried adding the group for product access  but it automatically increases count of billable users. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, that's how it should (and does) work - you're adding a load of users to the system, and the licences are based on the number of users.

[Salomon]

@Rizwan Rizvi We only use these users for assignment. for nothing more. Example: we have a Code-Department user and an Art-Department user. We use them if it is not clear yet who of the respective department will do the task.

We also have a user for creating issues through a web hook ("Bug Reporter" user). That user is not free, unfortunately. I think it needs too many / too powerful permissions.

[Rizwan Rizvi]

@Salomon 

What I am trying to achieve is similar to what you have i.e. we have a user called 'Help Desk', when issue comes in as I am not sure who is taking it up, it gets assigned to this dummy user (who doesn't have login access or email box) at the moment on our Server instance. However, on cloud I am unable to do the same without costing a license.

So similar to your case, are you able to assign issues to the 'Code-Department' user and not count towards license?