Monday.com to Jira: Modern Jira Structure & Term Translation Guide?

[Drew Nell]

Hi everyone, I am new to Jira and recently started at a company that uses Jira, though I’m coming from several years of working heavily in Monday.com. I can see some similarities between the two platforms, but I’m having trouble finding a clear, up-to-date guide or something that explains Jira’s current structure and terminology in comparison to Monday.com.

For example, both platforms seem to use concepts like workspaces, boards, tasks/issues, views, etc., but I’m not fully sure which terms actually translate cleanly and which function differently in Jira.

I’ve also noticed that a lot of Jira tutorials, documentation, and videos seem to reference older layouts or terminology, which has made learning the current Jira experience more confusing. Even more, in my work Jira account, I don’t see some sections that appear in my personal test/sandbox Jira account, such as a “Projects” section in the bottom-left navigation, which makes me wonder if some features are legacy, permission-based, or tied to different Jira setups.

I’ll eventually be involved in helping migrate work from older systems into Jira and may have the opportunity to suggest process improvements, so I’m trying to build a strong understanding of modern Jira without accidentally disrupting our real workspace.

Does anyone know of any current resources or simple translation chart for Monday.com users learning Jira? Any help understanding the modern Jira, what knowledge transfers well from Monday.com, or what I should think about differently in Jira would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Drew - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I have no used Monday.com but I have done some migrations from it to Jira. That being said, I am not expert on the mappings. 

However, here is some terminology from Jira that might help. The first thing to know is that Jira has made several naming convention changes in the last year or so. This biggest being what used to be call Projects are now called Spaces. This is the same name Confluence uses for its "spaces" so it can be a little confusing related to that. 

Other changes, include that issues are now called work items. This as a ripple effect throughout the system as well. Issue Types are now Work Types, etc. You can create lots of different work types, including Tasks, Stories, Epics, Sub-tasks, etc. So when you hear Task, think Work Type. In the Jira Service Management helpdesk product people often call them Tickets. And on the boards in Jira, they are often called Cards. 

So, Work Items = Tasks = Tickets = Cards, etc. Just know there can be LOTS of different Work Types on a space/project, including a hierarchy out of the box of Epic > Story/Task > Sub-task. 

That's the main things you need to know as you get started. The videos and courses in Atlassian Learning are really good. I suggest you start there. Most are free. 

And of course, we fellow end users are here in the Community if you have more questions (and you will!). Best of luck to you!

[Drew Nell]

Thank you, that was very helpful! This helped clear up some the old/new terminology conflicts I was running into with tutorials and YouTube videos.

[John Funk]

Glad that cleared some things up! If the answers were helpful would you be so kind as to click on the Accept Answer buttons for both so we can close this out? Thanks!

[Drew Nell]

Oh yes, thank you for pointing that out. Done.

[Carlos Garcia Navarro · Accepted solution]

Hi @Drew Nell ,

I agree with John's answer! Also, these are some translations from Monday.com to Jira:

Monday.com	Jira Equivalent	Notes
Workspace	Space (before it was called Project)	A Monday.com Workspace is still broader and more centralized than a Jira Space in practice.  Monday Workspaces often also act as: department hubs document hubs organizational folders reporting centers
Board	Board	Similar concept, especially Kanban/Scrum boards
Group (this is a a flexible container concept)	Epic / Component / Swimlane / Section	Depends how teams organize work
Item	Work item (before it was called issue)	“work item” is Jira’s universal work object
Subitem	Sub-task	Very similar
Status column	Workflow status	Jira workflows are usually much more customizable
Automations	Automation rules	Jira automation is powerful but more admin-driven
Views (Table, Timeline, Calendar)	Different issue views / dashboards / plans	Often permission or subscription dependent
Dashboard	Dashboard	Similar reporting concept
Forms	Jira Forms / Service Management forms	Depends on Jira product used

[Drew Nell]

Thank you! I had a feeling some of these things were similar based on my initial poking around and this confirms that. The additional comparisons and notes are very helpful.