When I first learned about “Projects” in relation to Atlassian, it referred to a collection of issues in Jira. In the past year or so, however, this has changed since Jira Projects are now called Jira Spaces. Personally I think this is a good terminology update since the work represented in Jira doesn’t necessarily relate to a project! The term “project” is typically defined in a specific way.
For example, projects typically have the following characteristics:
- Have a start and end date
- Have a defined scope
- Is intended to provide a specific result
Anyone using Jira for service management wouldn’t really call their work a project since its operations (it’s not time bound). Someone tracking their own personal work in Jira also may not call what they do a project
This terminology update meant the name “project” became available. Annnnd it was instantly snapped up by the Projects platform app.
Before we keep going we need to take a look at what “platform apps” are. When we think of Atlassian products we typically think of the main apps like Jira, Bitbucket, Confluence, and others. These apps serve specific, core functions—like tracking tasks, hosting code, or organizing documentation. A platform app, on the other hand, is a tool that sits across the entire Atlassian cloud ecosystem. Instead of being locked into just Jira or just Confluence, a platform app connects them all, acting as a unified layer and common function regardless of which “main” app you’re using.
Platform apps are the grey icons you see in the app switcher and include Assets, Rovo, Goals, Company Hub, Analytics and some others, including Atlassian Projects.
Instead of being confined to a single tool, Atlassian Projects allows you to group, track, and visualize high-level initiatives across your entire Atlassian suite. It serves as a communication layer allowing everyone to quickly understand what’s going on, regardless of where the actual work takes place.
Atlassian Projects is not a task list; it’s designed to give you a bird's-eye view of your project’s momentum, and how multiple projects are progressing together. Here are some of the core features:
- Cross-Product Hubs: Link your Jira Spaces, Confluence pages, Focus areas, and Goals into one central project hub. This gives everyone a one-stop shop to learn about what’s going on.
- High-Level Status Tracking: Instead of digging through individual daily tasks or a list of epics, you can track the overall health, phase, and target dates of major initiatives.
- Simplified Reporting: Automatically pull together updates so stakeholders don't have to ping you for status reports (this even works across related projects, meaning stakeholders can get one, consolidated update for a basket of projects all at once).
- Centralized Links: Keep all your essential project assets—from Figma designs to Slack channels—in one easy-to-find sidebar.
All of these features make Projects a singular source of truth for how an entire project is going. This gives it a lot of flexibility, but a few common ways to use it include:
- Product Launches: Marketing can link their Confluence campaign plans, engineering can link their Jira Spaces, and product managers can track the overall launch date in one spot.
- Centralized Updates: Projects have a “tag” feature that lets you group related projects. This makes it easy for someone to see how a collection of projects is doing (instead of chasing down multiple updates across various platforms).
- Cross-Functional Initiatives: Perfect for complex projects (like a corporate rebrand or a security audit) that require HR, Legal, IT, and Creative teams to work in tandem. This also allows each team to track and manage their work in the tool of their choice - and then just linking in and posting their updates.
Spoiler alert: not just project managers! The Projects app is very straightforward and simple to learn, this means it is accessible to a wide range of groups and individuals.
- Leadership & Stakeholders: I rarely have met an executive who wanted to dig through Jira for updates, which makes a Project a great alternative. Instead of sending them to a Confluence page they’ll get lost in, just make them a Follower on a Project and they’ll get automatic updates.
- Cross-Functional Team Leads: Anyone managing teams across multiple Jira workflows or spaces will benefit from using a single Project since the updates are in a single spot. Even better, those teams won’t have to change how they work.
- Program & Project Managers: I would have loved to have this when I was a PM! Instead of digging through Confluence or Jira to find the right spot to update, I could have just pulled up a single Project, written my short update, and everyone would be updated.
