Scaling governance without sacrificing speed: Enterprise-grade automation for a global banking group
As anyone who manages work in Jira will know, every process matters for overall accuracy and efficiency. Manual inputs slow work down and are prone to human error, and it can be difficult to standardise all of the necessary elements for consistency in compliance and reporting. And those factors are only compounded when working in a highly regulated environment, a particularly large instance, or with multiple disconnected systems and tools—all of which were at play in this organisation.
Sultan, a consultant at Life in Codes, works with businesses of all sizes to solve exactly these kinds of operational challenges. Here, he shares how ScriptRunner for Jira Data Center helped a major banking group automate standardised project creation, integrate seamlessly with BigPicture, and unlock faster troubleshooting—all while maintaining the strict security and governance controls that regulated industries demand.
At a glance
This banking group operates a very large Jira Data Center instance in the financial sector. With around 20,000 users and strict regulatory requirements, they needed consistency across every major initiative in Jira and BigPicture. They also needed swift yet secure access to vital data for troubleshooting and reporting, which often involved lengthy approval processes.
As the business continued to scale and new projects multiplied, their existing manual approaches were causing friction. They needed updated tools and automations that would maintain their governance standards whilst drastically reducing the time and effort involved.
They called on ScriptRunner partner, Life in Codes, for support. Consultant Sultan was introduced to the project and, knowing that ScriptRunner could achieve exactly what the client needed, he began implementing a solution.
Product
ScriptRunner for Jira Data Center
Client
Large global banking group, ~20,000 Jira users
Tech stack
Jira Data Center, ScriptRunner for Jira Data Center, BigPicture, Stagil Tables
Key outcomes
Automated creation of standardised projects in Jira Data Center, including BigPicture configuration.
Significant time savings—from around an hour per project to just a few clicks.
Faster troubleshooting and reporting in highly regulated environments through ScriptRunner's database and log access.
Reduced security risk with fewer privileged accounts needed for operational tasks.
Scenario one: Standardised project templates and BigPicture configuration
The challenge
In this bank's Jira Data Center environment, every major initiative is represented as a separate Jira 'portfolio project'. Each project must conform to strict standards—workflows, schemes, roles, and governance rules—and BigPicture must also be configured appropriately for each project to include box types, project lead, scope definitions, and so on.
The bank's teams were having to create and configure their projects manually, which took around an hour per project, introduced the risk of human error and inconsistency, and didn't scale well across their many thousands of Jira users and frequent new initiatives.
With no native project templates available in Jira Data Center, the bank needed a robust, governed way to:
- Automate project creation from standard templates.
- Apply configuration and roles based on submitted information.
- Wire everything into BigPicture automatically.
The ScriptRunner solution
Sultan and a colleague built a ScriptRunner‑based automation that turns a single request into a fully configured project.
Step 1: Request‑driven project provisioning
Users begin by raising a Jira ticket to request a new project. The request then goes through an approval workflow, and on approval, a ScriptRunner post‑function in the workflow reads the key custom fields (e.g. requested project name), generates a project key, and creates a new project as a copy of a predefined 'template' project, inheriting the standard workflows and schemes.
Step 2: Capturing structured project metadata
The bank also uses Stagil Tables in Jira tickets to capture structured details such as project manager, stakeholders, and additional governance information. ScriptRunner reads this table data and uses it to assign project roles, configure project‑specific rules, and ensure each new project has the correct attributes from day one.
Step 3: Automated BigPicture configuration
Finally, another ScriptRunner‑driven automation creates the appropriate BigPicture box type for each new project, sets the project lead, and defines the scope and other configuration values based on the same Jira request data.
The outcome
The bank now has a governed, repeatable way to create portfolio projects that always match its standard processes. Automated configuration of Jira and BigPicture means no manual setup, fewer errors, and significant time savings on every single project creation.
Any time they were going to create a project manually, it was taking them around an hour for each project. And you can imagine they create a lot of projects… This really is a huge time saving.
Sultan
Life in Codes consultant
The bank was so satisfied with Sultan's work that when new requirements arise (e.g. new fields in Stagil Tables or changes to governance rules), they continue to bring Sultan back in to adjust scripts and build on the solutions he has created for them.
Scenario two: Faster reporting and troubleshooting in a highly regulated environment
The challenge
In regulated organisations, consultants and admins can struggle to access the data and server logs they need for troubleshooting. Every request for access may require formal approvals and waiting days for someone with the right permissions to respond. This slows down audits and compliance checks, licence and user management, and troubleshooting critical production issues. The traditional alternative would be granting more people backend access, which increases security risks by multiplying privileged accounts and creating compliance challenges around the separation of duties.
Therefore, the tool or process implemented for this purpose needed to:
- Balance security with operational efficiency.
- Grant controlled, auditable access to data without backend infrastructure access.
- Enable immediate troubleshooting within Jira.
The ScriptRunner solution
Sultan relied on ScriptRunner's ability to provide authorised users with access to operational data within Jira's security model, reducing the need for widespread backend permissions.
Step one: Querying operational data
With ScriptRunner installed and Jira admin permissions, authorised users can run read-only queries to retrieve information on inactive users, licence details, and other operational metrics that are not easily surfaced in the native Jira UI.
Step two: Reading server logs through ScriptRunner
When backend access is restricted but troubleshooting is urgent, ScriptRunner can also allow controlled access to read server logs from within Jira and display, for example, the last 100–200 lines needed to debug an issue. It's a key enabler for consultants like Sultan, who need to find and resolve the root cause of any issues fast.
These are things that people may take for granted, but really lifesavers… sometimes you don't have access to the backend, but you have something critical you need to check right away. [ScriptRunner] really helps with troubleshooting.
Sultan
Life in Codes consultant
The outcome
When there's a critical issue in production, Sultan can find and fix the problem immediately, because ScriptRunner enables authorised admin and consultant users to get the data they need without requiring privileged infrastructure access.
The bank specified that security was the top priority in any solution. ScriptRunner satisfied their requirements and became a practical enabler for vital operational needs—without compromising on what was most important.
Why ScriptRunner?
Across these use cases, ScriptRunner provided the flexibility for Sultan to build exactly what the bank needed. With a seamless connection between Jira, Stagil Tables, and BigPicture, the bank's teams now save hours on every project, as well as enjoying the consistency of a standardised setup and an improved work management experience.
Behind the scenes, they are also benefiting from the reduced operational delays that Sultan achieved with ScriptRunner's troubleshooting capabilities. ScriptRunner's architecture ensures that automations can be adjusted as requirements evolve, while staying compliant, secure, and maintainable.
For the client in this project—and for consultants like Sultan—ScriptRunner is the key to unlocking complex automations and integrations that take Jira to the next level for work and project management.
More about Life in Codes
Life in Codes is an Atlassian Solution Partner on a mission to help organisations of all kinds work more productively. Active in Romania, Estonia, Belgium, the UK and the UAE, they offer smart tools, healthy practices, and training in areas like ITSM, Agile Project Management, Digitalisation, Knowledge Management, next-level customer support, DevOps, cloud migration, and Rovo AI agents. From start-ups to major institutions like SWIFT and DHL, as well as government institutions such as the European Commission, their clients show that productivity can be unlocked in any industry or team. Life in Codes believes teamwork and the right tools drive real results.
Need a similar solution for your business?
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If you're thinking about a move to Cloud, ScriptRunner for Jira is available on Cloud. See what another Life in Codes consultant, Mihai, achieved for a global solar energy tech client using ScriptRunner for Jira Cloud.