Best way to manage multiple projects in Jira?

Question

Hi everyone, I’m curious how teams here manage multiple projects in Jira without things getting messy. Do you prefer separate projects for each team or a shared project with different boards and filters? Would love to hear what has worked best for you.

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello @Babar Brohi

@Trudy P Claspill  is right that it really depends on the organization, but since you tagged this as Jira Service Management, I would say your use case is probably a bit different from the usual “software teams sharing boards” discussion

In JSM, I would usually lean toward separate service projects when the teams have different:

* request types / portal experience
* SLAs
* permissions / customer visibility
* email channels
* or support processes

That is because in JSM those things live quite strongly at the service project level. Atlassian’s docs show request types, SLA setup, and portal/help-center linking as project-level concerns, which is why separate support teams often become easier to manage in separate service projects.

If, on the other hand, the teams are really working in the same process with the same portal, same SLA logic, and just need different queues/boards internally, then a shared project can absolutely work too. That is the main distinction for me. The original question is general, but in JSM the answer is often more driven by customer-facing setup than by boards alone.

So my take would be:

same service model → one project can be fine

different service models → usually separate projects

So yep, your use case is probably a bit different from the generic Jira answer, because in JSM the portal/request/SLA side matters just as much as the internal board setup.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello

The answer to that question depends on the needs of your organization.

Do all team members need visibility to all work items across all teams?

Do you need to have cross-project or cross-team reporting?

Do you need to have standardized workflows, issue types, fields, etc. across the teams? Or do teams need the autonomy to self-manage their workflows and customizations for their work?

These are all questions that factor into deciding the types of project(s) to set up, and whether you need multiple projects or shared projects.