Connecting projects to teams

[KatherineM]

We are making use of the Goals in Jira to track the work we're doing to meet our objectives. We have also defined success measures there, and have created projects. All of that seems like it will be a lightweight way to connect our work to the mission behind it. 

As part of this effort, we are using Jira's Teams for the first time. Our projects = epics (and are connected), and are assigned to a Team. What we can't figure out is how to have those teams connect to the projects. The project directory page has a column for Team; how do we populate it? No matter what I try, it stays empty.

We have:

• added the field to epic screens and assigned a team
• created a plan and assigned a team to epics there (in case we missed something)

I can assign teams to goals and success measures just fine; how do I get something in the project teams column? We're soooo close to eliminating a spreadsheet! Thanks!

[KatherineM]

I actually figured out a way to get it to work! Once you have teams created with people assigned, and projects created, open a project:

1. On the right side, in the Contributors area, hit the drop down and you should see your list of teams.
2. Select the appropriate team. It will add the team and expand it automatically, selecting all members by default. You can add multiple teams this way.
   1. That's probably accurate for team-based work, so you can leave it like that, or you can pick and choose the people you want.
   2. As long as you keep at least one team member checked off, the team will "own" the project.

Now the project directory page populates the team as assigned the project, and the teams page shows the project as assigned to the team.

[Germán Morales _ Hiera]

I would separate the concepts here, because Jira uses “Project/Space”, “Team”, “Goal” and “Epic” in different places.

Assigning a Team to an Epic or to a Goal does not necessarily mean the project directory’s Team column will be populated. That column is tied to the Jira project/space metadata, not to the Team field you set on individual epics in a plan.

A practical workaround is to decide what the source of truth should be:

- If the unit you call “project” is actually an Epic, track Team on the Epic and build reporting from Epics.
- If the unit is a Jira project/space, check whether the Team needs to be set in the project/space settings rather than on work items.
- If you need a portfolio-style view, create a saved filter/report that groups Epics by Team and Goal instead of relying on the project directory.

The key is not to mix “Jira project” and “business project” unless you explicitly map one to the other.

[KatherineM]

Thank you for the reply. Are we confusing the two Jira meanings of project? The goals section has a new entity called "Project", that's literally a simple page to track progress and risks. That's the unit of work I wish to connect to teams.

I'm glad Jira has made the switch from team backlogs being called projects, to calling them spaces, but the change is a bit confusing to talk about. 🙃

[Germán Morales _ Hiera]

Thanks for clarifying, @KatherineM, and well done finding the path through the Contributors area. You're right, what you were after isn't the old Jira "project/space" Team field but the newer "Project" entity inside Goals, which is a different object entirely. My earlier reply was answering for the older meaning of "project", my mistake.

For anyone landing here later searching the same question: the trick is on the right-hand side of the new Goals Project page, in the Contributors block. Adding a Team there populates the Team column in the Projects directory and the project-to-team link on the Teams page. The Team field on individual epics doesn't drive that linkage.

[Tinker Fadoua]

@KatherineM  This should be under the questions in the Forum.