Goals vs. Projects

[Amy Christianson]

I want to show status and track changes on Jira features, and groups of features, and initiatives. I'm wondering the best way to do that via Atlas. It seems like I'll need to create either a project or a sub goal for each feature we have in Jira.

1. I could do a parent goal (initiative) with goals under that (groups of features) and sub goals (features) under that. 

2. I could do a parent goal (initiative) with goals under that (groups of features) and projects (features) under that.

Are there pros and cons on each option? 

[Jan-Hendrik Spieth]

I don't have a ready-made complete answer. Things to keep in mind and consider:

• Goals ask for monthly updates, projects weekly.
• Goals have just one icon, colored by status. Project icons are painful to use (imho).
• Goals lay out the strategy. Projects implement strategy.

[Sherif Mansour]

Came here to share a similar comment to what Jan-Hendrick said above, this resource might be helpful: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Atlas-Group-discussions/Goals-vs-Projects/m-p/2243849

But in general I think the question that might help find a best way to structure projects v goals and Jira Software mapping is first start with the intended audience and what level of information they care about, and how often they care about it.

* Those closer to the work generally would like weekly updates with a bit more detail (projects are great for this)

* Those further tend to focus on the outcome (the goal) and monthly updates is better.

Grouping multiple projects into a goal is just how we've designed Atlas to work for. The majority use case we've found is that a lot of the time one Atlas project is mapped to one Jira Software Epic (but it really depends on how you've configured Jira and what you want to communicate to stakeholders outside your team)

Hope this helps!

[Katja Weingärtner]

Thanks for your answers so far! I also have a question related to this:

We have implemented the following structure in Atlas for our strategy process:
Atlas Goals = Objectives (long term goals) -> we do not map in Jira.
Atlas Sub-Goals = Epics (initiatives to achieve the long-term goals) -> Jira Epics.
Atlas Projects = Features that we will implement within the next few months -> do we map in Jira via Features.

We love the update feature in Atlas and want to use it for strategic issues. I tried the integration options between Atlas and Jira yesterday and love the connection between Atlas Projects and Jira Epics!
What we are missing now is the ability to also connect Subgoals (Atlas) to Epics (Jira) and - more important for us - Projects (Atlas) to Features (Jira). Is this planned?