Now available with Strategy Collection: group permissions for Goals and Projects

[#1]

Hi community,

You've told us that controlling who can do what in Goals and Projects is critical and we've been steadily building out the access and permissions model for Goals and Projects - editor permissions, a configurable default for new goals and projects, and most recently restricted goals and projects.

Now we're adding the layer above that for Strategy Collection customers. Group permissions let admins control what groups of people can do across the Goals and Projects apps as a whole - who can create, who can post updates, who can archive, and who can export so you can govern at scale.

Goals and Projects are platform apps available to all Atlassian cloud customers. Strategy Collection builds on them with features designed for enterprise governance and cross-portfolio coordination including group permissions. Learn more about Strategy Collection and see if it’s a fit for your organization.

How it works

In admin.atlassian.com, every group is assigned a role - either App admin (full permissions across the app, can't be restricted) or User (all actions by default, can be tailored). Group permissions let you configure what each User-role group can do across the app as a whole - not goal by goal or project by project.

Permissions are configured per app, so you can set them independently for Goals and for Projects. And because groups come from admin.atlassian.com, everything lines up with the identity model your org admins already maintain.

Group permissions and per-item permissions work as two separate layers - group permissions set what someone can do across the app; per-item permissions set what they can do on a specific goal or project. Both layers need to grant access before someone can act.

If someone belongs to more than one group, they get the combined permissions of every group they're in - where those groups have different roles, the highest level of access applies.

What you can control

Permissions are organised into three categories on the Access and permissions tab. Everyone with app access can view goals and projects - that’s always on and can’t be changed. Everything else is configurable:

• Create - create new goals and projects, both in the app itself and in other apps that support them, such as Jira and Focus.
• Update - post, edit and delete updates, including status, dates, learnings, risks and decisions.
• Manage - edit details, names, fields and custom field values, teams and contributors, followers and the owner. Create and manage metrics. Delete an item. Manage who has access to a specific goal or project.
• Archive - archive and restore goals and projects.

Connections

• Manage - link and unlink goals, projects, related items, focus areas and Jira work items, and add or remove tags.

Views

• Export - export the goal or project directory as a CSV file.

In practice, that means you can do things like keep goal creation with a smaller group of planning leads, leave updates open to everyone, restrict archiving so items don't quietly disappear mid-quarter, and limit CSV export of the directory to the groups who need it.

Getting started

Your existing permissions stay exactly as they are until you choose to update them. When you’re ready to make changes, go to the app you want to change, select the Settings icon and navigate to the Access and permissions tab. Select Edit, adjust the checkboxes for each group, then select Save. Anything locked by a group’s role shows a non-editable tick or cross. Changes take effect immediately.

For the full details on how roles work, default groups, and per-item permissions, see the help articles for Goals permissions and Projects permissions.

Let us know what you think

We've been hearing from admins that governing access at scale is a consistent ask, and group permissions are here because of that feedback. Thank you to everyone who tested it with us through the early access program.

Tell us in the comments how you've set yours up, and whether there are actions you'd like to govern that aren't covered yet. Your feedback shapes what we build next.

Thanks for being part of the Goals and Projects community!