Org admins can now rename groups in cloud

[#1]

Some context

Atlassian customers have not been able to rename groups in cloud for a while now. If there’s a spelling mistake, change of team name, or anything that requires a change in a group name, it could not be done. The only option was to create a new group, move all the users from the old group to the new group, move all their permissions to the new group, then delete the old group… Or, live with it…

We understand our customers frustration, and are sorry you’ve had to wait 19 years, 11 months and 18 days for ID-6677 to be addressed.

Good news! 🥳

From late February 2023, we’re excited to release a beta version of our group rename feature to most customers (a note on this below) in cloud. You’ll be able to rename groups from the group details screen at admin.atlassian.com. Group name changes will also appear within the Atlassian Access audit logs.

Average news 🫤

There are some caveats for now around which groups can be renamed:

• We don’t allow special groups to be renamed yet, such as site-admins.

• Groups that are synced via an IdP (SCIM) cannot be renamed, yet.

• Being a beta feature, you may experience some slowness when renaming groups or unexpected errors, we’re working to improve this.

Bad news... 😢 

There’s still work to be done to enable this for all customers and all groups.

For now, the group rename feature will only be available on the improved user management UI. And we’re still working on getting all our customers onto that UI.

The group rename feature is also not available for groups that are used in some Jira features. If your group is used in one of these Jira features, we’ll help direct you to the location to remove this group, so you can continue with renaming it, if you choose.

More Jira features will be unblocked over the next 12 months and you can track that progress via ID-8092.

This feature has been made possible by a number of changes we've made in our cloud architecture over the last few years. It will not address the same group rename issue that still exists in server and data centre. 

App news 👩‍💻

Some apps may still rely on hardcoded group names to work. Jira and Confluence developer communities have put out blog posts asking Developer Partners to move off GroupName as keys and use GroupIDs instead.

If you experience some problems with your apps after changing a group name that the app utilises, please change the group name back or reconfigure your app to use the new group name. As mentioned above, you can track group name changes from within the Atlassian Access audit logs.

Thanks 🙏

We understand how frustrating this has been for you, and we’re sorry this has taken so long to deliver. It has been a long time coming and I’m ecstatic that we’ve been able to finally deliver group rename to most of you.

For those that are still waiting to be able to use this feature in cloud, we’re working hard to deliver it to you as soon as possible.

Update 15/03/2023 - Jira Automations

We've found that if a group is renamed, and that group name is used within a Jira Automation, the automation will not work. We're working to include automations within the group rename limitation check. 

[John Funk]

WOOHOO! This is great! So badly needed for so long. Thanks for knocking this out and continuing to iterate on additional functionality!

[Craig Castle-Mead]

Hey @Kieren 

While this is absolutely a step in the right direction, https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/ID-6677 (the Atlassian Access request) was duplicated from the original on-premise ticket ( https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-1391 ) so retained it's original creation date. 

The frustration you apologised for the "19 years, 11 months and 18 day" wait still continues to anybody using your on-premise products as https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-1391 has no indication it's being worked on, so our clock continues ticking. 

Hoping for some good news on the DC/on-premise front at some stage.

CCM

[Hana Kučerová]

Thank you! This will definitely help.

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks for this post and the new ticket @Kieren - awaiting this feature. One question I ask is will this ability be availble via the API as well? Thank you

[Kieren]

@Yatish Madhav No API available sorry.

[Kieren]

@Craig Castle-Mead Good point. I can't speak to the Server team's plans, but I will share our success and struggles with this Cloud feature with them.

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks @Kieren - that makes me (and I am sure/hope other developers too) sad ... I wonder if there is a plan in the long term to add to the API?

[Nikki Zavadska _Appfire_]

I love to see the old customer feedback being picked up again :)) better late than never! Thank you for bringing this feature to Confluence <3

[Raghavendra Reddy]

This is great! This will definitely help.

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Well done!

[Jeanne Howe]

@Kieren 

The frustration you apologized for the "19 years, 11 months and 18 day" wait still continues for every server/DC users- the users who originally requested this update 19 years, 11 months and 18 day ago

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-1391

Based on the creation of https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/ID-8092

Cloud has only been waiting for this for 3 months

Once again Cloud enhancements are being made on the back of your server/DC users while we see no progress at all.

[Kieren]

@Jeanne Howe Thanks for the feedback, I've updated this article to be clearer this change is for cloud only.

I've also passed your feedback onto the DC team.

[Erki Tammik]

@Kieren 

How far is the roll out? 

I'm managing new instance and I really miss renaming option for groups.

[Anibal Carracedo]

Is there an API to delete Atlassian Admin groups?

[Yatish Madhav]

@Kieren Hope you are well? Please advise when this will be rolled out? Thank you.