In the fast-paced world of business, successful IT service management (ITSM) relies on robust reporting capabilities that enable teams to monitor performance, recognize trends, and take data-driven actions. Jira Service Management (JSM) stands out as a popular ITSM tool with versatile reporting features.

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This comprehensive guide will explore the various aspects of Jira Service Management reporting, delving into its default and custom reporting options, dashboard capabilities, and ways to extend JSM's reporting functionality using third-party apps and Business Intelligence (BI) tools. By the end of this article, you will have a solid understanding of the power of JSM reporting and how to unlock its full potential to optimize your IT service management processes.

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The Importance of Reporting in IT Service Management

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Effective reporting plays a vital role in successfully managing and delivering IT services. By providing visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics, reporting empowers IT teams to make informed decisions, optimize processes, and continually improve service quality. Below are several reasons why reporting is essential in IT Service Management:

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Performance Monitoring
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Reporting enables IT teams to track the performance of their services in real time. By analyzing metrics such as incident resolution times, service request fulfillment rates, and service-level agreement (SLA) compliance, teams can identify areas where improvements are needed and take appropriate action.

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Trend Analysis

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Reporting allows IT teams to analyze historical data to identify patterns and trends. This insight can help teams anticipate and proactively address potential issues before they escalate into significant problems, improving service reliability and customer satisfaction.

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Resource Allocation

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Effective reporting can help IT managers allocate resources more efficiently. By analyzing ticket volumes, workload distribution, and staff utilization, managers can identify bottlenecks, redistribute tasks, and ensure that resources are allocated optimally to meet service demand.

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Decision-Making

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Reporting provides data-driven insights that inform strategic decisions. IT leaders can use reporting to assess the overall health of their ITSM processes, prioritize initiatives, and justify investments in technology, staffing, and training.

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Demonstrating Value

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IT teams can use reporting to showcase their achievements and value to the organization. By presenting data on service improvements, cost savings, and customer satisfaction, IT teams can build credibility and secure executive support for future initiatives.

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Compliance and Auditing

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Reporting is crucial in maintaining regulatory compliance and facilitating audits. Comprehensive reporting can help IT teams demonstrate adherence to industry standards, security protocols, and data privacy regulations.

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Jira Service Management Reporting: Built-in Options

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Jira Service Management offers various reporting options to help you gain insights into your IT service management performance. These options cater to different needs, ranging from out-of-the-box reports for everyday use cases to custom reports that can be tailored to your specific requirements. In this section, we'll explore the two main types of JSM reporting options: default reports and custom reports.

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Default Reports in Jira Service Management
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Jira Service Management Cloud offers a variety of default reports designed to measure standard service project functions. While these reports cannot be modified, they provide valuable insights into your team's performance and service level agreements (SLA) adherence.

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The following default reports are available:

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1. Workload Report - displays the number of requests assigned to each of your agents, providing insights into workload distribution and potential bottlenecks.
2. Satisfaction Report - Showcases your team's average customer satisfaction rating, helping you gauge the quality of your customer support and identify areas for improvement.
3. Requests Deflected Report - Presents the number of times customers viewed knowledge base articles in the portal and found them helpful, demonstrating the effectiveness of your self-service resources in resolving issues.
4. Requests Resolved Report - Compares the number of requests resolved with and without the help of knowledge base articles, offering insights into the efficiency of your support team and the impact of your knowledge base on issue resolution.

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To access these reports, navigate to the side menu of your service project and select "Reports" These reports provide a quick and easy way to monitor your team's performance and ensure they meet their SLAs.
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Custom Reports in Jira Service Management

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Jira Service Management offers a collection of customizable reports to help you track specific team objectives. You can edit an existing custom report or create a new one tailored to your needs.

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The following custom reports are available:

Created vs Resolved - compares the number of requests created and resolved over time, providing insights into request volume and resolution trends.

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Time to Resolution - analyze the time taken to resolve requests based on type or priority, helping you identify opportunities for improving resolution times.

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SLA Met vs Breached - compares the number of requests that have met or breached a service level agreement (SLA) goal, allowing you to assess your team's performance against SLA objectives.

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Incidents by Priority - compares the priority of incidents reported by your customers (available for IT service projects only).

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SLA Success Rate - displays how well your team is meeting their SLA goals, offering insights into the overall effectiveness of your IT service management processes.

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Service Requests - this breaks down the types of service requests in your service project, enabling you to understand the most common request types and allocate resources accordingly.

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Problems by Priority - compares the priority of problems reported by your customers (available for IT service projects only).

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Change by Type - this change management report records standard, normal, and emergency changes, helping you track the changes made in your IT environment.

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Time to Approve Normal Change - this change management report shows the time taken for a change to go through an approval process, allowing you to assess the efficiency of your change management procedures.

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These custom reports enable you to gain deeper insights into your team's performance and align your IT service management processes with your organization's specific goals.
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How to Create a New Jira Service Management Custom Report

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Creating a custom report in Jira Service Management requires project administrator permissions. Follow these steps to create a new custom report:

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1. In the service project's sidebar, select "Reports" then "New Report"
2. Enter a descriptive name for the report.
3. Select "Add Series" to create a new data series for the report.
4. Choose the desired series from the drop-down menu.
5. Add a descriptive label for the series.
6. Pick a color for the series data on the graph.
7. Apply filters by issue type, status, priority, or component, or use Jira Query Language (JQL) for custom filtering.
8. Click "Add" to include the series in the report.
9. Repeat steps 4-8 to add more series (up to 20) if needed.
10. Select "Create" to finalize your custom report.

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Utilizing Dashboards for JSM Reporting

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Jira Dashboards offer an alternative to default and custom reports for obtaining a high-level overview of ITSM processes. They are handy when reporting on multiple projects simultaneously, as they enable creating a portfolio-level view of ITSM activities.

In Jira Service Management, dashboards consist of customizable elements called gadgets. These gadgets display information, charts, metrics, and other data, helping you generate meaningful reports by selecting the data to be displayed and its presentation style.

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There are two default Jira Service Management gadgets:

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Filter Counts Gadget - this gadget displays the number of issues that meet specific criteria, such as issue type or status. It is valuable for monitoring request volume and identifying trends over time.

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Service Project Report Gadget - this gadget showcases a pre-defined or custom report from a service project. It helps track specific aspects of ITSM processes, like SLA compliance or customer satisfaction ratings.

Key Benefits of Using Dashboards for JSM Reporting
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Real-time Monitoring

Dashboards in JSM are dynamic, providing real-time updates to users. This allows for continuous surveillance of your service management processes. Instead of waiting for weekly or monthly reports, stakeholders can access current data at any given moment. This instant access to data enables rapid response to emerging issues, thereby reducing their potential impact. In addition, real-time monitoring can help identify trends and patterns as they develop, supporting proactive management and forecasting.

Customization

Dashboards are not a one-size-fits-all tool. They can be customized to meet the unique needs of your organization. This could mean adding specific gadgets that provide the most relevant information, removing unnecessary ones, or rearranging them for optimal visibility and understanding. Customization ensures that the information you need is readily available and presented in a way that makes sense to you, thus making your decision-making process quicker and more effective.

Collaboration

Dashboards can serve as a central hub for team members and other stakeholders. They can be shared and viewed by anyone with the necessary permissions, encouraging transparency in operations. This open view of operations helps foster a collaborative environment where everyone is informed and can contribute to decision-making. This could lead to more innovative solutions, improved problem-solving, and a shared sense of ownership and accountability among team members.

Efficiency

Dashboards consolidate data from multiple sources into one accessible location. This eliminates the need for users to access multiple systems or sift through various documents to gather the information they need. With dashboards, data is presented in a user-friendly format that simplifies analysis, saving valuable time and effort. This efficiency can translate into quicker decision-making, allowing your team to respond more rapidly to changing circumstances and to seize opportunities as they arise.

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By using dashboards and their associated gadgets, you can gain insights into your ITSM processes and make informed decisions to enhance your team's performance.

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How to Create a Dashboard for JSM Reporting

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To create a new dashboard in Jira Service Management, follow these steps:

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1. From the main menu, select "Dashboards"
2. Click "Create Dashboard"
3. Choose the dashboard type, either system or shared.
4. Enter a name for the dashboard.
5. Click "Add Gadget" to include a gadget on the dashboard.
6. Select the desired gadget, such as "Filter Counts" or "Service Project Report"
7. Configure the gadget by providing necessary information, like filter, project, or JQL query.
8. Click "Save" to finalize the dashboard.
   
   

Creating a dashboard helps you monitor key performance indicators and metrics related to ITSM processes. Customizable and shareable, dashboards facilitate collaboration and keep teams informed.

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Extending JSM Reporting with Reporting Apps and BI Tools

Although Jira Service Management offers robust reporting features, there may be instances where you require additional functionality or integration with other data sources. Third-party apps and Business Intelligence (BI) tools can help you extend JSM reporting capabilities and unlock new insights into your IT service management processes.

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Third-party Jira reporting apps, available through the Atlassian Marketplace, can provide specialized reporting functionalities tailored to specific industries, use cases, or ITSM frameworks. One example is the Custom Charts for Jira from Old Street Solutions, which offers enhanced visualization options and custom report templates that expand the default JSM reporting capabilities.

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BI tools, on the other hand, allow for more comprehensive data analysis and visualization by integrating multiple data sources. Tools like Power BI or Tableau can be connected to Jira Service Management, enabling you to create powerful dashboards and reports that combine ITSM data with other organizational data sources. This integration helps you gain a holistic view of your IT operations and make informed decisions based on the context. Alpha Serve offers BI Connectors for Jira to simplify the Jira Service Management data export process to these BI tools, including the Power BI Connector for Jira, Tableau Connector for Jira, Oracle Analytics Connector for Jira, SAP Analytics Cloud Connector for Jira and SQL Connector for Jira. These connectors enable users to easily export their JSM data to their preferred BI tool and create custom reports and dashboards with advanced analytics and visualization capabilities.

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In summary, extending Jira Service Management reporting with third-party reporting apps and BI tools can help you unlock the full potential of your IT service management data, empowering you to make better decisions, optimize processes, and deliver exceptional service to your customers.

Key Takeaways

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This comprehensive guide has explored the various aspects of Jira Service Management reporting and its importance in IT service management. As you look to optimize your ITSM processes, keep the following key takeaways in mind:
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• Reporting is crucial
  

Effective reporting is vital in ITSM, enabling performance monitoring, trend analysis, resource allocation, decision-making, value demonstration, and compliance.
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• Leverage JSM reporting options

Jira Service Management offers a range of built-in reporting options, including default reports for everyday use cases and custom reports for tailored insights.
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• Utilize dashboards

JSM dashboards provide a centralized view of your ITSM performance and help you monitor critical metrics in real time, making it easier for teams to stay informed and take action.
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• Extend JSM reporting capabilities

Third-party apps and BI tools can enhance JSM reporting, unlocking advanced analytics, sophisticated visualizations, and integration with other data sources for a more comprehensive view of your ITSM performance.
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• Continuous improvement

Use JSM reporting to drive continuous improvement in your IT service management processes, ensuring that you consistently meet the evolving needs of your organization and deliver high-quality services to your customers.

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By understanding and implementing these key takeaways, you can harness the power of Jira Service Management reporting to optimize your IT service management processes, drive data-driven decision-making, and elevate the performance of your IT organization.

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Conclusion

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Jira Service Management reporting is invaluable for organizations looking to optimize their IT service management processes and drive continuous improvement. By leveraging the built-in reporting options, utilizing dashboards, and extending reporting capabilities with third-party apps and BI tools, IT teams can comprehensively understand their performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to enhance service quality.

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This guide has provided insights into the various aspects of JSM reporting and highlighted its importance in ITSM. Armed with this knowledge, you are now well-equipped to unlock the full potential of Jira Service Management reporting and elevate your IT organization's performance. Remember, the key to success in IT service management is a commitment to ongoing improvement and adaptation – and effective reporting is an essential tool in this journey.

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