Why a "Project" in Atlas is called "Initiative" in Jira?

[LG]

I wonder why would the Atlassian team allow the confusion: 

- In Atlas, there are "Projects"

- But, in Jira, those are called "Initiatives"

Even worse, in Jira, a "Project" is a team or an entity (for the lack of a better word) that owns the "Initiatives" (aka "Projects" in Atlas). 

This has already created a lot of confusion when talking to different stakeholders about a "project" (in my mind, I was talking about an "Atlas project", but for them it was confusing since they are all day in Jira, where a "project" is something completely different)....

[Haddon Fisher]

This is a consistent (bu-dum CH) problem across Atlassian's product stack.

Jira using the term "project" to refer to what in Confluence would be called a "space" is already a constant low-level confusion. It encourages people who don't have a lot of experience with the tool to treat these as ad-hoc boxes for ad-hoc projects, which makes your instance a mess in about 30 seconds.

To use the exact same word in a tool that's ostensibly integrated with Jira to refer to something orthogonally different is not going to help people understand what this is supposed to be.

@Samuel Gatica (ServiceRocket) I know you see a difference based on intention, but this to me is the real point here:

In Atlas, a "Project" is usually comparable to an Initiative in Jira since it signifies a long-term goal that spans various teams and Epics.

If these tools are meant to be used holistically, then things should be consistent across them.

[LG]

Thanks, I agree. The lack of consistency makes me wonder if Atlassian has a team of technical writers who keep naming consistency across different products. The current situation seems to tell they don’t 

[Haddon Fisher]

Based on the output I've seen since Atlassian went public, I am not even sure they know there are other products, let alone talk to the people who make them.

[Samuel Gatica (ServiceRocket)]

Hi @LG 

Welcome to the community!

The terminology difference between Atlassian Atlas and Jira stems from their intended purposes and how they're structured:

Different Scopes & Focus
 

• Atlas: It's crafted for cross-functional, high-level project tracking. A "Project" in Atlas is designed to highlight a broad, goal-driven effort that involves multiple teams or tools.
• Jira: This tool is more about structured work execution. An "Initiative" in Jira Advanced Roadmaps represents a strategic theme or a significant body of work that brings together Epics.

Hierarchical Mapping

• In Jira Advanced Roadmaps, you typically see the hierarchy as follows:
  Initiative → Groups multiple Epics
  Epic → Groups multiple Tasks/Stories
  Task/Story → Individual work items
• In Atlas, a "Project" is usually comparable to an Initiative in Jira since it signifies a long-term goal that spans various teams and Epics.

Cross-Team vs. Team Execution
Atlas Projects tend to be broader and keep track of the status of initiatives across multiple products, departments, or even organizations. On the flip side, Jira Initiatives are generally confined within a single Jira instance and focus more on execution.

Please check this doc for a further understanding of The relationship between Atlas and Jira

Best regards

Sam

[LG]

thanks, Sam - for teams working with both products, and knowing that both were created by the same company (Atlassian), I am surprised by the nomenclature choice. It is confusing to call something as "project" in Atlas, and to have that same thing represented in Jira with the name of "initiative". 

[David Nickell]

Here is some practical advice (I hope) from someone who has been a ling time administrator (not an employee of Atlassian).

•  Consider Projects as Project Containers.
• This year I've seen:
  • Clients using Projects to Contain all the work by customer (This client did electrical engineering.  They had several customer Projects). 
  • Similarly I had a client who manufactured kitchen equipment for their customers.  They too had customer projects.
  • Clients who use Projects to manage work by application.  Look at jira.atlassian  dot com sometime and you will see projects that pretty much align with their products by technology.  This is common in software organizations I've been in.
  • At the same time, clients can create Projects to manage the work of a team.

Here is the great thing -- you can do any combination of these approaches.  

The double edged sword of the Atlassian data structure (20 years old I guess) is that it allows you to organize in a way that makes sense to YOU.  It's all about tailoring the tool to your way of doing business, not forcing you into adopting someone's else vision of how work should be done.

The downside is how easy it can be to get confused and/or configure in a way that just confuses and frustrates everyone.  

3 out of 4 clients I've worked with contacted me and said -- we set Jira up and have no idea what we're doing.   I think Project Templates and Team Managed projects are an attempt to address the confusion.   IMHO -- it's only made matters worse and even more confusing. 

For whatever it was worth  :-) .....

[LG]

Thanks so much for your reply and insights! I’m glad you figured out a way of working around such a poor naming scheme by the Atlassian product team. 

[Dirk Lachowski]

Atlas: It's crafted for cross-functional, high-level project tracking. A "Project" in Atlas is designed to highlight a broad, goal-driven effort that involves multiple teams or tools.

Well, sounds like an initiative to me. 

a high-level, long-term strategic effort or theme that aligns with business goals and guides the overall direction of a project or product, often encompassing multiple epics and features

It’s just that Atlas is using the wrong name. That’s why you usually have goals and initiatives, not goals and projects.

[LG]

I hope @Samuel Gatica (ServiceRocket) reads these comments in a less defensive way, not trying to explain how the Atlassian team did not screw up with naming, and passes the feedback to the technical writing / product teams, so they can add this to the list of things to fix (which will probably never get fixed, but at least it would be nice, as a customer, to know that they recognize it as something that needs to be fixed). 

[Samuel Gatica (ServiceRocket)]

Hi @LG 

I have reached out to the Atlassian Support team to request their assistance in providing an official response to this matter.

Best regards
Sam