Leading Lender Company Elevates Service Management with Improved Jira Usability and Access Controls

About the Client

A prominent private mortgage lender provides innovative residential and commercial lending solutions across the United States. To manage internal workflows, IT support requests, and project tracking, the organization relies heavily on Jira Service Management (JSM) and Jira Project Management (JPM). Over time, the environment had accumulated inconsistent configurations, unused request types, and overbroad permissions—resulting in usability challenges and operational risk.

Use Case

The client required a comprehensive review and optimization of their Jira environment to:

• Improve the clarity and usability of the Service Management portal.
• Streamline request types and workflows to align with department-specific needs.
• Harden permissions to prevent unauthorized configuration changes or data deletions.
• Ensure configurations were scalable, documented, and easier to maintain.

Additionally, the teams needed better controls to avoid unintentional form deletion events and improve auditability across the platform.

Initial Enhancement Implementation

The engagement began with a Kickoff Meeting and a detailed assessment of the Jira environment. Key activities included:

• Conducting a 1-hour discovery session with stakeholders to confirm objectives.
• Reviewing current Jira and JSM configurations, installed apps, and workflows.
• Identifying critical issues impacting usability, including inconsistent request forms, confusing portal structure, and misconfigured permissions.
• Cloning the Production instance to a Sandbox to safely test improvements without impacting live operations.

Solution Approach: Structured Remediation and Customization

Portal Configuration & User Experience Enhancements

• Collaborated with stakeholders to confirm portal customization requirements, covering request types, forms, and field behaviour.
• Cleaned up unused request types, reorganized request categories, and fully configured form logic.
• Added help texts, placeholders, and conditional fields to improve clarity and user experience.
• Tested end-to-end request flows and refined layouts based on feedback.

Incident Management & Root Cause Analysis

• Investigated an incident where portal request forms were unexpectedly missing or deleted.
• Reviewed project history and Jira audit logs to trace the issue.
• Opened a support case with Atlassian, providing audit data and findings, and communicated status updates to stakeholders.
• Confirmed the root cause was an internal platform issue within Atlassian.

Permission Scheme Hardening

• Audited permissions across JSM and JPM projects.
• Identified that the “Delete Issues” permission had been unintentionally assigned to broader user roles.
• Updated permission schemes to restrict deletion capabilities strictly to Jira Administrators.

Advanced Conditional Logic & Field Behavior

• Implemented dynamic form behaviors, including:
  • An “Impacted Loan Number(s)” field that only appears when specific applications (Glide, BytePro, Servicing Director, Jira) are selected.
  • Validation and conditional visibility to ensure correct data entry.
• Confirmed all configurations in the Sandbox before Production deployment.

Queue and Workflow Optimization

• Configured routing logic so change requests are correctly directed to either Tech Program Management or PMO teams based on the selected application.
• Continued refining queues and workflows to improve triage and visibility.