Words are hard (rebranding fun with Atlassian)

[#1]

In light of the impending renaming of Jira Projects to Spaces (h/t @Dirk Ronsmans, I thought it might be fun to take a journey through other things Atlassian has renamed/rebranded.

I mean, who can forget...

Project Central -> Team Central -> Atlas -> Platform Experiences (Goals & Projects)

• 2015 (?) - @carolyn french clued me in that it used to be called Project Central, and I've found evidence elsewhere:
  • @Frederick Ros wrote:  "If you're going back to its roots (and Project Central as advertised by Dom Price during the 2015 Summit, if I'm not mistaken)..." 
  • And @Mary Raleigh who made many many presentations about Team Central when it was announced in 2021, let slip:
    "A: We don't have this at the moment, but this scenario can be easily modelled by creating a Project Central project"
• Apr 2021 - Simplify status reporting with Atlassian's newest product, Team Central 
• Apr 2022 - Team Central is now Atlas, your teamwork directory 
• Feb 2025 - Everything you need to know for the upcoming Atlas to platform migration (February 2025)

Issues -> Work Items

• Nov 2024 - Reimagining ‘work’ in Jira to better represent all teams 

Plugins -> Add-ons -> Apps

• 2003 (?) - Atlassian Plugin framework, written on a plane from SF to Sydney by MCB (per Daniel Franz)
• May 2009 - Introducing the Atlassian Plugin Exchange 
• Jun 2010 - Announcing the Universal Plugin Manager 
• May 2012 - Browse, Try, Buy, on Atlassian Marketplace (plugins officially renamed add-ons)
• Aug 2017  - Marketplace now has apps 

Many thanks to @Daniel Franz - JXLs spectacular "A brief history of the Atlassian Marketplace"

Additional history here: The Atlassian Marketplace picks up momentum by enabling teamwork 

Summit -> Team

• Sep 2020 - Introducing Team 2021, our new event series 

AUG -> ACE (from where we end up with the "Atlassian Community Events Events" :-)

• Apr 2019 - Atlassian Community: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts 

I know I must've forgotten/missed some. Please go ahead and share your favorite (or most frustrating) renamings/rebrandings!

[Kieren _SmolSoftware_]

Ahhh memories! I liked the original code name for Project Central before it was launched… Watermelon 🍉. Because it would stop projects looking green on the outside, but being red on the inside 😂

[Darryl Lee]

OH! How could I forget!

Roadmaps for Jira -> Portfolio -> Advanced Roadmaps -> Plans

• Sep 2014 - Radiant Minds has joined Atlassian, Roadmaps for JIRA is now JIRA Portfolio! 
• May 2020 - Portfolio for Jira is now Advanced Roadmaps 
• Nov 2023 - ✨ Plans, an advanced planning feature in Jira Premium 

Oh heh:

Roadmap -> Timeline

• May 2023 - New name, same powerful features: Roadmap is now Timeline! 

[Trudy Claspill]

What about...?

Jira Software + Jira Work Management = Jira

[Robert Rebmann]

I wasn't able to find the date, but Jira Service Management was called Jira Service Desk once.

And Opsgenie ist getting rebranded to Jira Service Management Operations.

Insights is now Assets.

[Hua Soon SIM _Akeles_]

Let me chip in too :D

From Stash to Bitbucket

[Kieren _SmolSoftware_]

Also can’t forget poor Hipchat to Stride to RIP 🪦

[Dave Mathijs]

Apps are now Connected Apps (i.e. Marketplace) as Products are becoming Apps as part of a Collection (i.e. Atlassian)

[Dave Mathijs]

Community Leader > Community Champion

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

Atlassian Forums (powered by Jive Forums, pre-2011) > Atlassian Answers (2011-2017?) > Atlassian Community (2017+)

[Raju Kadam]

One thing you forgot is ...,

Atlassian changed their logo from Charlie to current logo.

[Dave Liao]

Guard to Access

Beacon to Guard Detect ... right?

Haven't had enough coffee yet 😆 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

"Greenhopper" became "Jira Agile".

[Dave Mathijs]

Classic vs. Next-Gen projects became company-managed vs. team-managed projects.

[Kelly Arrey]

In the beginning, there was Jira.
Then there was Jira Software and Jira Core.
Then there was Jira Software and Jira Work Management.
And now there's Jira again.

And just today I got this popup:

And I also remember seeing somewhere that Jira Projects will soon be called "Spaces".

[Vanessa]

Just like I still call the parking garage behind the building that used to have a Burger King in it 20 years ago "The Burger King Parking Lot" I will still be using the terms Issues and Projects. Sure it confusing to the new guys, but *I* know what I am talking about.

[Darryl Lee]

@Kelly Arrey and @Dave Mathijs

Ooof yes, how could I forget:

Products -> Apps

• Apr 2025 - Atlassian Administration terminology change from “products” to “apps” 

[Darryl Lee]

YES @Raju Kadam totally forgot about:

2008

2014

2017

(Sorry about the poor alignment.)

Those were screencapped/pasted from this great article from the designers of the new custom typeface Charlie Sans introduced in 2017:

• Atlassian ☠️ OH no Type Company 

The new branding was formally announced here:

• Sep 2017 - Our bold new brand 

Where MCB writes about the new typeface:

Fun fact: we paid special tribute to our original logo, Charlie, in this name, as well as in the letter “A” in our wordmark.

And more design discussion from 2017

• Behind the Scenes of Our Bold New Brand 

Honestly, logo rebrands and new typefaces really don't impact me as much as terminology changes which can fundamentally affect the way we and our users actually get work done. (Except that the new fonts they've implemented are SO BIG. Is it because the founders are getting old and needed bigger letters? Or is it because they buy everyone ginormous monitors over at Atlassian? Seriously, you can fit so much less content on a Confluence page with the new fonts.)

---

Oof, and apparently that's not all of them, per The Atlassian Logo History, Colors, Font, And Meaning 

[Jennifer Choban - HeroCoders]

Next Gen projects  = Team-managed projects

Classic projects = Company-managed proejcts

[Darryl Lee]

Ha yes @Trudy Claspill and @Kelly Arrey - Jira's journey of branding and marketplace positioning has been something to behold.

As @Rodney Nissen - ReleaseTEAM likes to say, "It's Jira, but for _____"™

Oof, let's _try_ to break it down. (Also if somebody has written a whole article about this, please let me know.)

JIRA (+ JIRA Agile?) -> JIRA Software -> Jira

• Oct 2015 - The next stage of the JIRA evolution is here 
• Oct 2015 - Introducing Jira Software: the #1 software development tool used by agile teams 
• May 2024 - Jira Work Management is now part of Jira 

Which well, I couldn't help but think of this:

JIRA -> JIRA Core -> Jira Work Management

• Oct 2015 - The next stage of the JIRA evolution is here 
• Apr 2021 - Introducing Jira Work Management 
• Also - Jira Work Management FAQ 
  

  Jira Work Management will be the new name and reimagination of Jira Core Cloud, complete with many new features and capabilities. As Jira Work Management is built on the same company-managed Business projects as Jira Core, every existing and new Business project on Cloud has gained these new features.

JIRA -> JIRA Service Desk -> Jira Service Management

• 2013 - 
• Oct 2015 - The next stage of the JIRA evolution is here 
• Sep 2020 - Introducing Jira Service Management 

(I don't remember when they got rid of all caps JIRA. If you have a reference, please post it.)

Also, I'm sure I'm missing some key details. Happy to be corrected.

[Darryl Lee]

So I dug around and found these early discussions and presentations about Project Central (later to become Goals & Projects under Platform Experiences). 

Wow, had no idea that this had been brewing for a while, apparently:

• Nov 2015 - Fireside Chat: Cultivating Company Culture - Atlassian Summit 2015 
• Cutting Through the Noise: Breaking Down Hierarchical Communication Channels and Silos 

Thanks to Deiser for the links:

• Learn how to build a Project Central in Jira Software 

[Brita Moorus]

The shift from "issues" to "work items" probably had the biggest impact for me and the transition felt more natural than I expected. Another one that stands out is Insights becoming Assets. I still hear both names used depending on who you talk to! 😅

Also guilty of occasionally saying "plugins" instead of apps! 🙈 Curious to see how the "projects" → "spaces" rename will play out.