Goodbye “Projects,” Hello “Spaces”: My Take on Jira’s Terminology Shift

[#1]

Just wanted to share my thoughts on the great—and not-so-great—sides of this change.

So yeah, big news: Atlassian is officially replacing the term “Project” with “Space” across all Jira Cloud products.

🚨 What’s Changing?

In simple terms:

Anywhere Jira previously said “Project,” it will soon say “Space.”

Where?
Pretty much everywhere Jira exists—whether it's Jira Software, Jira Service Management, or Jira Work Management.

While there are plenty of official announcements outlining the details, here's my perspective on what’s great—and what’s not so great—about this shift.

✅ What’s Great About It

• It finally makes Jira and Confluence speak the same language. Nice.

• “Space” feels more accurate for teams doing ongoing work—not everything is a time-boxed project.

• Might make it easier to onboard non-tech folks or cross-functional teams.

• It opens the door for Jira to fit more naturally in ops and business teams.

• Let’s be real—other tools are moving in this direction. Jira’s keeping up.

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⚠️ And What’s… Not So Great

• Long-time users are definitely going to be like, “Wait, what happened to my project?”

• All those onboarding docs and internal training decks? Gotta update them now.

• There’ll be that weird phase where half your site/tenant says “Project” and half says “Space.”

• “Space” is kind of vague, isn’t it? Some folks might miss the clarity of “Project.”

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What do you think?
Do you welcome the change, or are you team “Projects forever”?
I'd love to hear your take—drop a comment below! 👇

[Brian Taylor]

This may get confusing for a while, especially for Administrators with this change.  Right now, if a user refers to a Space, at least you know it is a reference to Confluence, and a Project is about Jira.  It will take some getting used to.  It will also be interesting to see how the interface changes with these name changes. 

[Randy O_Neal]

One word sums up my reaction: Meh.

[Staffan Redelius]

- I want a space for my team/project..

- Ok, in what "APP" do you want your space, what do you need to do? 

- COLLABORATE!

- Yes ok, but...

It will take some time to get used to but I have users calling Confluence spaces projects and projects in Jira spaces so in the end it might be less confusing.

[Susan Waldrip]

Like @Brian Taylor said, it'll take some getting used, particularly for those who use Jira (software) specifically for time-limited projects, but we've had so many changes lately with Atlassian apps ☺️ that we'll get used to this one, too. And Atlassian is getting better with letting us know what's changing and when, which really helps admins and our customers make the change.

[Evgenii]

Very weird change.

Previously, it was much clearer what a user meant when they mentioned "Projects" or "Spaces."
If someone asked about a Space , you knew they were referring to Confluence .
If they mentioned a Project , you knew it was related to Jira .

Now, with the new naming, every time a user asks for a change or access, it will be a guessing game to figure out whether they're talking about Jira or Confluence.

What’s worse is that Spaces in Confluence and Projects in Jira can have similar or even identical names — which will only add to the confusion.

[Debbie Jolley]

oh goodie, yet more unnecessary torture for us site admins (which isn't even my actual paid job - just something that I'm the only person who has a good grasp on in my org!)

am not even going to try to get my head around how you then find a jira space vs a confluence space in the new UI - or are we not supposed to?  which completely misses the point that Jira and Confluence have different purposes in life...

[Elizabeth.Johnson]

@Debbie Jolley - I hear that, and I applaud you!! 

I'm curious to see how this will play out. Initially it will cause me some confusion I am sure, but my team is relatively new to Jira so maybe it will help them adjust? Glass half full :) 

[Jamie Edmondson]

I don't think this is a bad idea at all. In fact, so often, when working on different projects, I've had to explain to teammates the difference between the project they are working on and the "Jira" project. Sometimes, organizations use Jira projects for the purposes of a team's work. So for example, a web development team has their own Jira project where all of their work is managed. The scrum master "manages" the project/board in Jira. I'm not suggesting that's the way to do it - that's just the way many do it.

I explain to these teammates to think of Jira projects as more of a "container" of work and not necessarily 1-to-1 with actual projects. So, I think the term "spaces" makes sense.

So I'm not surprised Atlassian is going to move away from the word "projects" given this context. However, I do agree with the sentiment that it might be confusing for a bit.

[Debbie Jolley]

@Jamie Edmondson if scrum masters are managing anything that in itself is a huge red flag.

For me, it's not so much the fact that Jira Projects are being renamed per se - it's the fact they are being given the same name as Confluence spaces - that is going to lead to a world of pain and confusion for many people. 
As 2 products with 2 different purposes they really do need 2 different names/terms to differentiate them, especially, as others have commented, in a lot of cases people will have used the same/similar naming for their projects and spaces

[Morgan Watts]

I appreciate the change and think it will be for the better. We use the term "Project" as a work-item-type and that has been causing confusion when speaking about the "Project-type" or a "Jira project." I know it's a self-inflicted wound, but when handling contracts, projects tied to contracts, and tasks being completed for the project on said contract, it makes sense for our company. 

Having one unified term for Confluence and Jira locations of work will help reduce confusion at my company. Typically, most Jira projects had a Confluence space connected from the start, and my users, whom all are relatively new to Atlassian products (less than two years) would mix-up the terms or just refer to "I'm looking Confluence for Project X" rather than using "project" or "space."

I definitely understand that this change can cause more confusion, work for updating documentation, and just training the brain to use the correct terms, but in the end- a more unified experience across these two products will lead to better results.