For those not seeing the sense in this change, keep in mind that many teams have adopted a Product approach vs a Project approach to work, especially when they will continue enhancing their product indefinitely into the future. Calling those collections of work "projects" was always weird, and this fixes that problem. "Product backlog" is a more common term outside of Jira vernacular, but "Space" is generic enough to work for both Product- and Project-oriented bodies of work.
So I'm pretty happy about this change. I assume lots of others are too but just aren't commenting here.
@Jeff Madison it isn't that we don't see the sense in the change, it is just that we do not agree with it. What you described is exactly the scenario I explained in a previous comment about changing the tool because it of "how we use it". Just because there are some people that purchased a Project Management tool and don't like that it is using the term Project does not mean it should be changed to accommodate that.
I will ask again, why can it not be a new added feature to accommodate the cases where people are wanting to not call a project a project (and yes, I understand what you stated, but I do not agree, as a long standing project is still a project)?
I also do not think using the term "Product" is correct as a product is something that is provided from one entity to another, either as a physical or virtual item, or as a service. We do not work on software development products, we work on software development projects to create products.
I've worked with Atlassian products since around 2008/2009, and while the renaming of "Projects" doesn’t bother me too much conceptually (it's a pain though, ngl), I do think the rollout was mishandled. This kind of change shouldn’t be rushed, especially when the term "Project" is so deeply embedded in both the functionality (APIs, JQL, etc.) and the product language developed over decades.
I believe a lot of the frustration could have been reduced if Atlassian had chosen "Workspace" instead of "Space." As others also have pointed out, "Workspace" would preserve a clearer distinction between Jira and Confluence, while still aligning with existing (and new) terminology.
In general:
A Space suggests a broad, open area often associated with documentation or team hubs (like MS Teams or SharePoint).
A Workspace implies a place for active work, organization, and task management.
Most people naturally shorten terms in conversation to reduce cognitive load. By using "Space" across both Jira and Confluence, Atlassian has unintentionally increased that load for millions of people. I’ve already had to clarify which product I was referring to in a conversation, and I expect this confusion will grow - especially for those of us involved in support, training, or cross-product collaboration. It's an unnecessary addition to the cognitive load for a lot of people.
To put it simply: The same name should not be used for areas in different products with different functionality and intention. The aim of technology products like Atlassian's should be to reduce cognitive load where possible, not increase it.
Why the choice of using identical names was made, is interestingly the only feedback I don't see anyone replying to, and it also wasn't addressed in any of the original blog posts, where the focus is on why it should't be called "Projects". I'd really like to hear it.
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Changing terminology from Projects to Spaces is a good idea. Can you also change Operations? This causes confusion for companies that have Operation team.
Hey everyone, to better reflect how energy flows through the universe as we experience our journeys together, we have decided to change from innovation to elevation. All former innovations will now be known as elevations, and our innovators will now be referred to as elevators.
Also, we're changing all the potted plants from palm to ficus.
It was already hard enough to navigate admin controls for Atlassian Products. Now I need to double check each time to see if the words for things have also changed.
This is awful. This makes me hate the product. throwing more garbage on a wall that already has too much junk on it.
I will never implement Altassian at any org I work with again. I have been around since the days of whipping up custom CSS for a local confluence server.
The cloud 'offerings' have done nothing for me other than make me actually miss on premise.
As a reminder, when you made meaningless superficial changes, it breaks people's comfort with whats familiar, it breaks users guides, and provides no true value. Jira, stop it
How many other software applications do we all work with, where the names and terms are constantly being changed? That's correct...NONE! Its only Atlassian in THEIR wisdom that think they are making things better, when in fact we have gone backwards. If they bothered to do any market research before making this last HUGE change, they would have received a resounding NO.
Oh, and how many other software applications rely on a multitude of other companies to make Atlassian's own software work? That's right...none.
fascinating reading all the comments and opinions on the change from Projects to Spaces. As with many things there's simply no pleasing all the people all of the time. Overall I tend to support the direction of abstraction , with context being added by the users to suit their desired context.
The reason for ending up here , I have been away from Jira for a couple of years now getting back into the flow. Decided to do the training and take advantage of all that great free training resources. However, got stuck as I saw the training talk about Projects:
My assumption is there's a roadmap for these materials being updated, any idea when that might be. Otherwise i'll work my way though and do an auto search-and-replace in my head for PROJECTS = SPACES.
@Mat ChavezI know you asked Spencer, but here's my take:
On the terminology changes...
Terminology is always challenging (especially across languages), so while "Space" may have helped identify Confluence specifically in the past, I think Atlassian is trying to shift us toward viewing their ecosystem as more flexible rather than tying specific objects to specific "products" these days.... and maybe that is good.
The reality before this change:
Projects were already being tracked everywhere—within just Confluence, just Goals, just Jira, or across all of those apps together. People were already using inconsistent terminology even before this update by calling things whatever resonated most or how they understood it.
People often don't fully explain their needs and just use familiar terms:
Person: "I need a new Jira project."
SME: "Why? What's the use-case? Oh, showing how new ideas are connected to the quarterly goals? Could you use Goals for that hierarchy of tracking? Product Discovery ideas? What exactly are you trying to accomplish on the Jira side?"
We use these apps for tracking many different types of projects and team resources, often combining multiple Atlassian spaces for specific use-cases.
What actually works:
It's always been essential to have people fully explain their needs rather than jumping to specific tools or terms. For process improvements, it helps when they explain what's currently happening and provide source URLs to referenced objects. For problems, "expected vs actual" with screenshots/videos is incredibly helpful.
Then whoever's helping can determine the right solution—whether that's documentation in an existing Confluence space with tasks tracked there, a new Confluence space coupled with a Jira space for work items, or whether Atlassian apps are even the best fit.
My approach now:
I'm guilty of using legacy terms too, but I try to be as specific as possible to avoid confusion when I can:
"This might work well within a Confluence database."
"You might want to track these in a plan showing Jira work items grouped by Goals. Here's how that could work... (video/docs)"
"If you paste the URL from your Jira Product Discovery view into your Confluence page, it creates a live look-through. Does your team need a new space in Confluence for documentation, or will your current page structure work for tracking items in this project you are working on?"
Despite over a decade of brain muscle memory pulling historical terms to the forefront, maybe I'm okay with this because a more general, abstract term future-proofs my conversations? I'll always need to know what "space" someone's operating in and may need to give them a new space within some other app to improve their workflow. So I just want them to start explaining the why more than the what and then I can guide them.
Maybe I've always disliked the previous term and think it didn't make sense? Or maybe I'm just at the Peaceful Acceptance stage of grief? — not entirely sure, but I'm ok with this one.
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