We would like to user the service desk to allow customers to create bugs and feature requests through a simple interface on an existing Jira project.
There would then be 'agents' that would curate these issues and then hand them to the development team if confirmed.
This all works nicely and as expected. The only problem is that the developers are not 'agents' but 'collaborators', and Service Desk therefore prevents them from editing / transitioning the issues.

It means we cannot streamline our support with our development process. We would need separate support and development projects and duplicate/link the issues between them.

Would it not be possible to remove this restriction? The collaborators should be able to do whatever their given permissions are. They don't need access to the full service desk view. We are still paying for their user license anyway.
Agent licenses will still be needed (and purchased) to use the full Service Desk portal features. Otherwise it is a convoluted user experience.

Atlassian response:

Service Management best practices would typically see the engagement of software engineering as a separate process. Combining the two could be a potential source of inefficiency. e.g. Assigning support tickets to engineers may disrupt queues, lead to incorrect SLA calculations etc.

Usually, agents are those communicating with customers through the tickets and the portal. When engineers work on a ticket they will change its description, add steps to reproduce, effort estimations, sprints etc - which are all internal information that the agent may not want to share with the customer. 

However, we recognise that the need expressed in this ticket is of high priority and importance. We should have a streamlined workflow between JSM and JSW, allowing agents to easily get engineers' assistance. The solution can include a few elements:

• An efficient workflow of an agent requesting engineering assistance
  This can currently be achieved through automation (see example). However, to get some additional information the engineer will need to go to the original JSM ticket (attachments, comments). We will evaluate opportunities for improving this capability.

• Provide customers update about the JSW ticket status
  Sometimes, the agent wants the customers to know if the JSW ticket is in progress, on hold etc.
  1. This can be achieved through apps such as Extension for JSM. (see also automation example).
  2. There is an open JAC request for this feature View linked issues in the customer portal.
      The relevant team updated that they will consider it in their next roadmap discussions

Note: See similar issue "Jira Service Desk should not restrict Project actions" with 123 votes

Thanks,

JSM Team.