JIRA as a solution for processing regulatory approval requests

[Michael Lock]

I'm curious to know if there are any implementations of JIRA for use as a solution for processing requests for regulatory approvals.

At first glance, it seems as though this might be a possible solution and I'm interested in any feedback from JIRA users about things that may or may not support that "first glance".

The high-level requirements are generally these;

• "Customers" of the regulator must submit a request for permission to undertake a regulated activity e.g. use a land parcel for a defined resoruce development purpose. The request must include details (document attachements of various kinds) outlining the specifics of the request.
• The request may be routed to different locations within the regulator depending on the nature of the request.
• The request is reviewed by the regulator first for completeness (i.e. does it have all of the required iformation to enable a technical review) and then for regulatory compliance (i.e. if the activity is conducted as described will it comply with applicable regulations for that activity)
• The request may need to be referred to other internal locations for various aspects of the review and internal work to be conducted.
• If the request is found to be compliant an approval (e.g. license, permit etc. with a set of conditions and having a unique identifier) is issued to the "customer" and the "application" is conlcuded
• If the request is found not to be compiant it could be summarily closed or refered back to the "customer" for revision.
• The regulator needs to know the current processing state of any individual request
• The regulator needs to understand the metrics associated with the process e.g.
  • how many requests, by request type, have been received during a period
  • How many are currently active, by processing state.
  • How many have been concluded during a period
  • The average total elapsed time for each type of request - request submission to conclusion
  • The average wait time i.e. time when the request has been refered back to the customer for the provision of additional information.

Is anyone using JIRA for this sort of process?

Could it reasonably be used to support this sort of process?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

[Marco Mancuso · Accepted solution]

Hello Michael,

There are infinite ways to satisfy the requirement in JRA and a possible way to implement it could be the following:

• Create the Requests Issue Types

1 issueType for each different type of requests with the same workflow (this is needed for the triage step)

• The workflow should have a triage transition that will ask for details, assignee and the issuetype (the type of the request can be selected during the triage trasition through the triage screen)
• On step that will require approval to proceed
  • Create the approval subtasks (You can use Script runner plugin https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.onresolve.jira.groovy.groovyrunner) one for each required approval process, assign the subtask to the user responsible for the approval
  • Put a "subtask blocking condition" (you can use JIRA built-in, script runner plugin or many others) in order to hide the outgoing transition unless all the subtasks are in a Closed (or Approved) status

About the reporting needs it is just matter of writing the correct JQL queries and to create filters and dashboards to publish the data

NOTE: with the script runner "scripted postfunctions" you'll be able to execute scripts (groovy, jython) against the issue during the workflow transition (almost limitless possibilities)

I hope it helps

Marco

[Michael Lock]

Haha. You're speaking Greek to me at the moment becuase I presently know almost nothing about JIRA but you have indeed confirmed my first glance thought.

Thank you!

[Pavel Zubov]

Michael, hi!

I think here you can try to combine capabilities of JIRA Cloud and Customer Case add-on.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/customer-case-for-jira/cloud/overview

You will have to modify project workflows and tailor them to your needs. For getting external requests from customers, you can run the customer portal with several forums.

So your users will be able to submit their requests, and you will have a capability to process these requests in JIRA as usual.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Short answer is "yes"

I've seen things like this (and a lot more complex) done in Jira a few times. You've pretty much defined a workflow and your reporting requirements with those bullet points and there's nothing there you can't do in Jira.

[Michael Lock]

Thanks Nic.

As with all things, though, I suppose the devil is in the details...

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Very much so. Jira has a lot of flexibility and power, and the "Jira experience" part of my brain is muttering "yeah, this chap can do what he needs with it"

But from a fresh start wiht a clean Jira, you do have quite a lot to do. I'd start with a look at your processes - draw it up as a flow chart and then use that to build the Jira workflow. Marco has covered a lot of stuff I'd say about doing it well, so I won't repeat that.