Hi Community!
We’re excited to announce a new permission for version management in Jira Cloud! This highly requested feature brings a new level of flexibility, control, and efficiency to how teams manage versions, empowering organisations to delegate responsibilities more precisely and securely.
What’s new?
With this release, we’re introducing a new “Manage Versions” project permission. This allows you to grant specific users, groups, or roles the ability to create, release, archive, merge, edit, and delete versions in a project—without giving them full project administrator privileges.
Key highlights:
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Assign version management to trusted users, not just the project administrator
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Reduce bottlenecks and improve release workflows
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Enhance security by limiting broader project administrator access
What’s changing?
Previously, only users with the “Administer Projects” permission could manage versions. Now, you can assign the new “Manage Versions” permission independently, giving you more flexibility and control.
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Before: Only project administrators could create, release, archive, merge, edit, and delete versions in a project
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Now: Any user or group or role with the “Manage Versions” permission can manage versions, while project admins retain all their existing capabilities.
Who is impacted?
This change affects:
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Jira
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Jira Service Management
This is available on company-managed and team-managed projects.
Why did we make this change?
We heard from many of you that tying version management to “Administer Projects” permission created bottlenecks and security concerns. Teams needed a way to delegate version management without exposing sensitive project settings unnecessarily.
By introducing granular permissions, we’re helping you:
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Empower the right people to manage releases
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Reduce administrator overhead
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Improve security and compliance
How can I get started?
To grant users, groups, or roles the “Manage Versions” permission
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Select Settings (), then select Work items.
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Select Permission Schemes in the sidebar to open the Permission Schemes page.
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Select the permission scheme you would like to update.
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For the Manage Versions permission, select Update to grant the permission to a user, group, or role.
For more details, please check out: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/manage-project-permissions/.
Feedback and questions
We’d love to hear how “Manage Versions” permission helps your team, and what else you’d like to see. Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments below or via our support.
Thank you for being part of the Atlassian Community!
The Atlassian Team
