Not using projects and only using Epics

Question

We currently use Epics and projects.  However, now the Products Owners have decided that they only want to use Epics and get rid of projects.  We have two teams.  Retail and Customer Facing.  Example Retail would have three streams of work and only Epics no projects.  I do not see this working properly.  Am I wrong in my thinking?  Any assistance or alternative way that you could think of this working would be appreciated.

Walter Buggenhout · Answer

You are completely correct, @Shari Fitz-Patrick. You would create a project that represents a product. And in it, you can use components, versions, etc. If your company is building products, that would be the way I would recommend setting it up like that as well.

Regarding your epics, you could either use a project specifically for your Epics, but if your epics are linked to 1 product only, you could just as well put your epics in the product projects themselves (I hope you're still following 🤗)

Shari Fitz-Patrick · Answer

Hi  I suppose I thought you had to have projects because as you both have said issues are inside a project.  However I think that the PO's probably do want to replace projects with products.  One of my concerns is that if we do that we cannot use Components which I have found very useful.  If they wanted to replace projects with products I think that things would operate very differently than when using projects.  An example would be to create a product called Onboarding Epics with Epics underneath that.  Am I correct in thinking that it would still be a project but we would be calling it a product.  Sorry for all these questions.

Walter Buggenhout · Answer

Hi @Shari Fitz-Patrick,

It depends what you mean by projects. If these are actual Jira projects, that won't work, as every issue in Jira is stored inside a project.

If a project, however, is an issue type that is in your roadmap at the level above Epics, then that is a decision that you can take at your own discretion.

It is always interesting to ask yourself and your Product Owners what they are going to lose when they suggest something like that. For whatever pops up then, you can ask yourself and them if there's anything crucial there and how that is going to be mitigated. Maybe they don't just want to get rid of projects. Maybe they want to replace them with products? Anyway, that last bit is just a guess on my part ...

Hope this helps!