Set Up an IT Help Desk with Jira

Configure a full IT help desk with queues, SLAs, and a customer portal.

Introduction

30 Second Summary

Every time you call IT support because your laptop froze or your password expired, someone on the other end is using a ticketing system to track, prioritize, and resolve your issue. These systems are the backbone of every IT support team.

In this project, you will set up a fully operational IT help desk using Jira Service Management. You will configure the system as an IT administrator, then switch roles to work tickets as a frontline support agent.

What You'll Build

A fully operational IT help desk powered by Jira Service Management, configured from scratch with custom request types, queues, SLA policies, and a customer portal.

By the end of this project, you'll have:

A configured IT service management project with custom request types, priority-based queues, and SLA policies that mirror real enterprise environments.
Hands-on experience triaging and resolving realistic support tickets through their full lifecycle, from creation to resolution.
A published knowledge base article that enables customer self-service and reduces ticket volume.
Secret Mission: Create an automation flow that auto-assigns high-priority incidents and sends a notification.

Are there any prerequisites?

None. You just need a web browser and an email address. Jira Service Management's free tier supports up to 3 agents at no cost, and no credit card is required to sign up.

Create Your Atlassian Account and IT Service Project

Every IT support team needs a central system to receive, track, and resolve support requests. Without one, issues get lost in email threads and chat messages.

In this step, you will create a free Jira Service Management account and set up your first IT service project. This gives you the foundation for everything you will build in later steps.

In this step, get ready to:

Sign up for a free Atlassian account.
Create an IT service management project using a pre-built template.
Explore the default project structure and customer portal.

Sign up for a free Atlassian account

Atlassian is the company behind Jira Service Management. You need an Atlassian account to access the tool.

Open your web browser and navigate to the Jira Service Management signup page:
https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/service-management
Click Get it free on the page.
Enter your email address in the Work email field.
Click Agree and sign up (or continue with Google if you prefer).
Check your email inbox for a verification email from Atlassian and confirm your email address.
When prompted, choose a site name for your account. This becomes your URL (for example, yoursite.atlassian.net).
Complete any onboarding prompts that appear until you land on the Jira Service Management dashboard.

What is Jira Service Management?

Jira Service Management (often abbreviated JSM) is a ticketing system used by IT support teams at thousands of companies. It helps teams receive support requests, track their progress, and resolve them within defined time targets.

The free tier supports up to 3 agents with no credit card required. That is more than enough for this project.

Not receiving the verification email?

Check your spam or junk folder. The email comes from Atlassian and may take a minute to arrive. If you still do not see it, try the signup process again with a different email address.

help me troubleshoot my Atlassian signup

Create an IT service management project

Now that your account is ready, you will create a project using the IT service management template. This template comes pre-loaded with request types and workflows designed for IT support teams.

From the top navigation bar, select Projects, then select Create project.
In the Service management category, find and select the IT service management template.
Select Use template.
Choose Team-managed as the project type.
Name the project IT Help Desk.
Accept the auto-generated project key (you do not need to change this).
Select Create project.

Why team-managed instead of company-managed?

Jira Service Management offers two project types. Team-managed projects give you direct control over settings at the project level. Company-managed projects require site-admin permissions and use shared configuration schemes.

Team-managed is simpler for a solo learner. It lets you focus on core ticketing concepts without extra administrative complexity.

What is the project key?

The project key is a short identifier (like IHD) added to every ticket in the project. Your first ticket might be IHD-1. Jira generates this automatically from your project name.

Not seeing the IT service management template?

Make sure you are looking inside the Service management category, not under other categories like Software or Business. If the UI shows Spaces instead of Projects in the navigation, Atlassian may have updated the terminology on your site. Select Spaces, then Create space to reach the same screen.

help me find the ITSM template in Jira Service Management

Explore the default project structure

Your new project comes pre-loaded with features from the ITSM template. Take a moment to orient yourself before building on top of it.

Look at the left sidebar in your project. Note the navigation items: Queues, Board, Reports, and Knowledge base.
Review the pre-configured request types that came with the template. You should see incident-related types, service requests, and hardware/software request categories.
Find the customer portal link in your project (look for a portal URL or a link labeled Customer portal in the sidebar or project settings).
Click the portal link to open it in a new tab. This is what your end users will see when they submit a support request.

What are queues and knowledge bases?

Queues organize incoming tickets by criteria (like priority or type) so agents can triage efficiently. Boards give you a visual Kanban-style view of ticket status. Reports show team performance metrics.

The knowledge base is where you publish self-service articles so customers can resolve common issues without creating a ticket.

What is the customer portal?

The customer portal is the public-facing side of your help desk. End users visit it to submit requests, check the status of existing tickets, and search knowledge base articles.

Agents never see the portal view by default. They work from the internal project view instead.

Your Atlassian account and IT Help Desk project are ready to go. Next up, you will customize request types and the customer portal so they match a real IT team's needs.

Configure Request Types and the Customer Portal

Your IT Help Desk project is live with a set of default request types from the ITSM template. Now it is time to tailor those types to match what a real IT team handles every day.

Request types define the categories of help that end users can ask for. Without custom types like password resets or software installations, your team would rely on generic forms that miss critical information needed to resolve tickets quickly.

In this step, get ready to:

Create custom request types for common IT support scenarios.
Customize the customer portal so end users can find and submit your new request types.
Review how customers are added to the service project.

Customize request types for your help desk

A request type is a specific category of help that end users can ask for through the portal. Each type collects the exact fields an agent needs to resolve that kind of issue without back-and-forth.

In the left sidebar of your IT Help Desk project, click Project settings.
Select Request types.

Seeing Space settings instead of Project settings?

Atlassian is transitioning terminology in Jira Service Management. You may see Space settings instead of Project settings in your sidebar. Both lead to the same configuration area.

You will see the default request types that came with the ITSM template. These include incident-related types, service requests, and hardware/software requests. Take a moment to review what is already there.

Now create your first custom request type.

Click Create request type.
Enter Password Reset as the name.
Add a description such as Request a password reset for any company system or application.
Assign it to the Service requests portal group.
Add the following fields: Urgency, Affected User, and Department.
Save the request type.

Why add specific fields?

Fields like Urgency and Department let the agent prioritize and route the ticket without asking follow-up questions. The more relevant information you collect upfront, the faster tickets get resolved.

Now create a second custom request type.

Click Create request type again.
Enter New Software Installation as the name.
Add the fields: Software Name and Business Justification.
Save the request type.

Both new request types should now appear in your request type list alongside the defaults from the template.

Don't see Create request type?

Make sure you navigated to Project settings (or Space settings) first, then Request types. If the button still does not appear, confirm you are the project administrator.

Help me find the Create request type button in my project

Customize the customer portal

The customer portal is the public-facing interface where end users submit support requests. They never see the agent queues or internal notes. They only see the portal and the request types you make available to them.

In your project, click the portal link in the left sidebar (or navigate to Project settings, then Portal settings, and click the portal URL).
Review the portal layout. This is exactly what your end users will see when they submit a ticket.
Notice how request types are organized into portal groups.
Verify that Password Reset and New Software Installation appear under the appropriate portal group.

What are portal groups?

Portal groups organize request types into logical categories on the customer portal. For example, a "Service requests" group collects all non-urgent operational needs like password resets and software installs.

This grouping helps end users find the right form quickly instead of scrolling through a long flat list.

You should see both of your custom request types displayed on the portal alongside the defaults from the template.

Add a customer to the project

In a real IT environment, customers are the employees or end users who submit tickets. They do not need agent licenses. Jira Service Management allows unlimited customers on the Free plan.

In the left sidebar of your service project, click Customers.
Click Add customers.
Enter a secondary email address (or note that in a production environment, you would add your organization's end users here).
Click Add.

How do customers interact with the portal?

Once added, customers receive an email invitation to access the portal. They can submit requests, track their ticket status, and search the knowledge base. They never see internal agent comments or queue configurations.

Your help desk now has custom request types that collect the right information from day one. Next up, you will build queues and SLA policies to make sure those tickets get handled on time.

Set Up Queues and SLAs

Your IT Help Desk project now has custom request types ready to capture the right information from end users. The next challenge is making sure incoming tickets land in the right place and get resolved on time.

In this step, you will build queues to organize tickets by category and urgency. You will also define SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that set time targets for how quickly your team must respond to and resolve each ticket.

In this step, get ready to:

Configure custom queues for efficient ticket triage.
Set up SLA policies with priority-based response and resolution targets.
Review SLA conditions that control when timers start, pause, and stop.

Configure queues for ticket triage

Queues act as filtered views of your tickets. Instead of scrolling through every request, agents can jump straight to the tickets that need their attention. You will create two custom queues: one for high-priority incidents and one for password resets.

In the left sidebar of your IT Help Desk project, click Queues.
Review the default queues that come with the ITSM template.
Click Manage queues.
Click Create new queue.
Name the queue High Priority Incidents.
Set the filter criteria: Priority = High or Highest, and Work type = Incident.
Configure the columns to show: Key, Summary, Priority, Status, Created, and SLA.
Click Create.

What is a queue?

A queue is a filtered list of tickets that match specific criteria. Think of it like a smart inbox that only shows you the tickets you care about.

In a real IT team, different agents might monitor different queues. A network specialist watches the high-priority incidents queue while a junior technician handles password resets.

Now create a second queue for password reset requests.

Click Create new queue again.
Name this queue Password Resets.
Set the filter criteria: Request type = Password Reset.
Click Create.

Both custom queues should now appear in your queue list. Click Queues in the sidebar to confirm they are accessible.

Don't see your new queues?

Make sure you clicked Create after configuring each queue. If the queue appears in Manage queues but not in the sidebar, check that it is not disabled or hidden from the sidebar view.

Help me troubleshoot my missing queues in Jira Service Management.

Set up SLA policies

SLA policies define how much time your team has to respond to and resolve tickets. Different priorities get different time targets. A high-priority incident (like a server outage) needs a faster response than a low-priority request (like a font preference change).

Navigate to Space settings (or Project settings) in the left sidebar.
Select Request management.
Select SLAs.

Why two different menu names?

Atlassian is transitioning its terminology. Depending on when your site was last updated, you may see Space settings or Project settings. Both lead to the same configuration area.

First, configure the "Time to resolution" SLA with priority-based targets.

Find the default Time to resolution SLA in the list.
Click Edit on that SLA.
Select Add priority under a goal to group targets by priority level.
Set the High priority time target to 4 hours.
Add another priority and set Medium to 8 hours.
Add another priority and set Low to 24 hours.
The remaining priorities (labelled All remaining priorities) should be set to 48 hours.
Click Save.

What does "All remaining priorities" mean?

When you add your first specific priority to an SLA goal, the label "All matching priorities" changes to "All remaining priorities." This acts as a catch-all for any priority levels you did not explicitly configure.

Next, configure the "Time to first response" SLA.

Find the Time to first response SLA in the list.
Click Edit.
Select Add priority under a goal.
Set the High priority time target to 30 minutes.
Set the Medium priority time target to 1 hour.
Set the Low priority time target to 4 hours.
Click Save.

Your SLA policies are now configured. They will begin tracking as soon as tickets are created in the next step.

Can't find the SLAs page?

Make sure you navigated into Space settings (or Project settings) first, then Request management, then SLAs. The SLAs option lives under Request management, not directly in the top-level settings menu.

Help me find the SLA settings in my Jira Service Management project.

Understand SLA conditions

SLA timers do not just run continuously. They have conditions that control when the clock starts, pauses, and stops. Understanding these conditions helps you interpret SLA reports accurately.

Click Edit on your Time to first response SLA.
Scroll down to the Conditions section.
Review the Start, Pause, and Stop conditions listed.

How do SLA conditions work?

The Time to first response SLA starts counting when a request is created. It stops when the first agent comment is made. This measures how long a customer waits before hearing from your team.

The Time to resolution SLA pauses when a ticket enters a "Waiting for customer" status. This is fair because the agent cannot resolve the issue while waiting for more information from the customer.

Click Cancel or navigate back to exit the SLA editor without making changes.

Your help desk now has intelligent routing through queues and accountability through SLAs. Next up, you will put these to the test by creating and resolving realistic IT support tickets.

Work Realistic IT Support Tickets

In the previous step, you built the backbone of your help desk by setting up queues for ticket triage and SLA policies that define how quickly your team must respond. Now it is time to put that configuration to work.

In this step, you will simulate the daily life of an IT support agent. You will create realistic tickets through the customer portal, then switch to the agent view to triage, respond, and resolve them while watching your SLA clocks tick.

In this step, get ready to:

Create sample support tickets through the customer portal.
Triage and resolve a high-priority incident with internal and customer-facing comments.
Process remaining tickets and review performance reports.

Create sample tickets through the customer portal

To simulate real end-user requests, you will submit tickets through the customer portal. This is the same experience your users would have when they need IT support.

Open your customer portal URL in a new browser tab.
You can find the portal link in your project's left sidebar, or navigate directly to your site's service desk portal.

Why use the customer portal instead of creating tickets directly?

Creating tickets through the portal simulates what real end users do. It also triggers the SLA clocks you configured, so you can see your response and resolution timers in action.

Now submit your first ticket.

On the portal, find the request type for reporting an incident.
Enter My laptop won't connect to Wi-Fi as the summary.
Set the priority to High.
Submit the ticket.

Submit your second ticket.

Select the New Software Installation request type.
Enter Need Adobe Photoshop installed as the summary.
Set the priority to Low.
Submit the ticket.

Submit your third ticket.

Select the Password Reset request type.
Enter Password expired, can't log in as the summary.
Set the priority to Medium.
Submit the ticket.

Switch back to your agent view tab. Navigate to Queues in the left sidebar. You should see your three new tickets distributed across your queues.

Don't see your tickets in the queues?

Make sure you submitted the tickets through the customer portal, not by creating them directly in the agent view. Tickets created directly may not trigger SLA tracking correctly.

Also verify that the priority and request type you selected match the filter criteria on your custom queues. The High Priority Incidents queue filters by Priority = High or Highest AND Work type = Incident.

Why aren't my tickets showing up in the custom queues?

Triage and work the high-priority incident

In a real IT team, high-priority incidents get attention first. Your SLA gives you only 30 minutes to respond and 4 hours to resolve. Let's work this ticket through its full lifecycle.

Navigate to your High Priority Incidents queue in the left sidebar.
Open the Wi-Fi incident ticket by clicking its summary.

First, add an internal comment. Internal comments are only visible to agents, not to the customer who submitted the ticket.

In the activity section at the bottom of the ticket, switch to the Internal note tab.
Type: Checking if this is a known issue with the latest OS update.
Click Save.

What happened to the SLA clock?

Look at the SLA section on the ticket. Your "Time to first response" clock has stopped because your comment counts as the first agent response. The SLA timer should show that you responded within the 30-minute target.

Now transition the ticket status to show you are actively working on it.

Find the status dropdown at the top of the ticket (it currently shows Open or similar).
Transition the ticket to In Progress.

Next, add a customer-facing comment with your resolution.

Switch to the Reply to customer tab in the activity section.
Type: We've identified this as a known issue with the recent update. Please restart your laptop and reconnect to the network..
Click Save.

Finally, resolve the ticket.

Transition the ticket status to Resolved using the status dropdown.

Your ticket now shows as Resolved. The SLA timers should both show completion within their targets (30 minutes for first response, 4 hours for resolution).

What is the difference between internal notes and customer replies?

Internal notes are only visible to agents on your team. Use them for investigation notes, escalation context, or anything the customer should not see.

Customer replies are sent directly to the person who submitted the ticket. They can see these comments in the portal and receive email notifications.

Process the remaining tickets

Now apply the same workflow to your other two tickets. Each one follows the same lifecycle: Open, In Progress, Resolved.

Navigate to the Password Resets queue.
Open the "Password expired, can't log in" ticket.
Add a customer-facing reply letting them know their password has been reset.
Transition the status from Open to In Progress, then to Resolved.

Now work the software installation request.

Return to Queues and open the "Need Adobe Photoshop installed" ticket.
Add an internal note: Approval needed from manager before installing licensed software.
Transition the status to In Progress.
Add a customer-facing reply confirming the software has been installed.
Transition the status to Resolved.

Why add an internal note about approval?

In a real IT environment, licensed software installations often require manager approval or budget authorization. Internal notes create an audit trail of these decisions without exposing internal processes to the end user.

Now review your team's performance metrics.

Click Reports in the left sidebar.
Review the dashboard showing resolved tickets, SLA compliance, and response times.

You should see all three tickets marked as resolved with SLA targets met. This is the same reporting view that IT managers use to track team performance.

SLA showing as breached?

If an SLA timer shows as breached, you may have waited too long between creating the ticket and adding your first response. This is normal during a learning exercise. The important thing is understanding how the clock works.

For future tickets, remember that the "Time to first response" clock starts the moment the ticket is created and stops when an agent adds any comment.

Help me understand why my SLA is showing as breached.

You have worked three tickets through their full lifecycle. Next up, you will create a knowledge base article that helps customers solve common issues without needing to submit a ticket at all.

Build a Knowledge Base Article

All three of your tickets are resolved, and you have real metrics in your Reports dashboard. Your help desk is fully operational.

However, some issues come up again and again. The Wi-Fi reconnection problem you just resolved is a perfect example. Instead of fielding the same ticket repeatedly, you can publish a knowledge base article that lets customers solve the problem themselves.

In this step, get ready to:

Create and publish a knowledge base article with troubleshooting steps.
Verify the article surfaces in the customer portal search for self-service.

Create a knowledge base article

A knowledge base is a collection of help articles that customers can browse before submitting a ticket. Jira Service Management includes Confluence (Atlassian's wiki tool) for free, and it powers the knowledge base directly from your project.

From the left sidebar of your IT Help Desk project, select Knowledge base.
Select Create article.

What just opened?

Clicking Create article opens Confluence, the wiki tool that is included with your free JSM site. This is where you write and publish articles that will automatically appear in your customer portal's search.

Title the article: How to Reconnect to Wi-Fi After an Update.
In the article body, write the following four troubleshooting steps:
Select Publish in the top right corner to make the article live.

Your article is now published. It should appear in the Knowledge base section of your project.

Don't see the Create article button?

Make sure you are in the agent view of your IT Help Desk project, not the customer portal. The Knowledge base option appears in the left sidebar of the project.

If Confluence prompts you to set up a space first, follow the on-screen instructions to create one. This only happens the first time you use the knowledge base.

Help me find the Knowledge base section in my JSM project.

Link the knowledge base to your service desk

Publishing the article is only half the value. The real payoff comes when customers can find it themselves without creating a ticket.

Return to the customer portal by clicking the portal link in your project sidebar.
In the portal search bar, type Wi-Fi and look for your article in the search results.
Verify that your article title appears and that a customer could click through to read the troubleshooting steps.

Why does this matter for IT teams?

This is called self-service support. When customers can search and find answers on their own, it reduces the number of repetitive tickets your team handles.

In real IT environments, a well-maintained knowledge base can deflect 20-40% of incoming tickets. That frees agents to focus on complex issues that actually need human attention.

Article not showing in portal search?

It can take a few minutes for newly published articles to be indexed in the portal search. Try refreshing the portal page and searching again.

Also confirm that the article status is "Published" in Confluence, not still in draft mode.

Help me troubleshoot why my knowledge base article isn't appearing in the customer portal.

Secret mission

Create an Automation Flow

You have built queues and SLAs to organize and track tickets. But what if high-priority incidents could assign themselves the moment they arrive? In this secret mission, you will create an automation flow that removes manual triage for critical tickets.

Clean Up Your Resources

This project runs entirely on Jira Service Management's free tier, so there are no ongoing costs. Decide whether to keep your resources running, pause them to come back later, or delete them entirely.

Resources you used:

Jira Service Management site (includes the IT Help Desk project, tickets, queues, SLAs, automation flow, and knowledge base article).
Atlassian account.

Keep everything running

No action needed. Choose this if you are still actively building or want to reference your IT Help Desk configuration later.

Your Jira Service Management site remains accessible at your Atlassian URL.
The free tier supports up to 3 agents with no time limit and no credit card required.
Your automation flow, queues, SLAs, and knowledge base article all stay intact.

Pause - I'll come back to this later

Since this project uses the free tier, there is nothing to pause. Your site stays available at no cost whenever you return.

You can disable the automation flow to stop it from consuming monthly rule runs. Navigate to your IT Help Desk project, select Project settings, then Automation. Find the "Auto-assign High Priority Incidents" flow and toggle it off.
Everything else (queues, SLAs, request types, knowledge base) stays dormant until you create new tickets.

Delete - I don't want to use this again

Remove all project resources and your Atlassian account entirely. This cannot be undone.

Delete the IT Help Desk project: In your Jira site, select the Settings gear icon in the top right, then select Spaces. Find "IT Help Desk", select More actions, then Move to trash.
Permanently delete the project: From the same page, select Trash in the sidebar. Find your project, select More actions, then Delete now. This removes all tickets, queues, automation flows, SLAs, and reports.
Delete your Atlassian account (optional): Go to id.atlassian.com/manage-profile. Select Account preferences. In the Delete your account section, select Delete account and confirm. Your account enters a 14-day grace period before permanent deletion.

Nice Work!

You just built a fully operational IT help desk from scratch using Jira Service Management. You configured it as an administrator, worked tickets as a frontline agent, and published self-service resources for end users.

You've learned how to:

Set up a complete IT service management project with custom request types, priority-based queues, and SLA policies that define response and resolution time targets.
Triaged and resolved realistic IT support tickets through their full lifecycle (Open, In Progress, Resolved) while tracking SLA compliance.
Published a knowledge base article that surfaces in the customer portal, enabling end users to resolve common issues without creating a ticket.
Secret Mission: Created an automation flow that auto-assigns high-priority incidents and sends a notification without manual intervention.

Ready to quiz yourself?