Project Management

[Stuart Wicks]

I'm new to Jira and I would like to use it to manage my Team's projects but I'm not sure if it's possible to set it up how I want it.

I've created my Team and I would like to create projects that appear 'underneath' my Team name.  For example I'd like to to click on my Team name and then see a list of current projects.  Each project will have tasks assigned to member of the Team.

Is there a template I can use to achieve this?

[Josh_Unito · Accepted solution]

Hi @Stuart Wicks This article should outline everything you need to do to enable teams as a custom field in Jira. It covers permissions, enabling teams in both company and team-managed projects, and setting automations.

I hope that helps!

[Stuart Wicks]

Thanks for replying.  I'm not sure if I explained myself with enough detail.

I already have a list of Team-managed business projects and I can see them all when I choose the Projects dropdown menu and View all projects.

From this view I'd like to be able to see the Timeline.  I'd also like to be able to click on a project (perhaps with a '+') to show all child issues and how they relate to the Timeline.  I would also like to be able to click on a child issue from this view so it opens.

I don't want to over complicate things I'd just like to replicate a simple folder structure which starts at the top level with one folder name (Team name).  Inside this folder there is a list of folders (project titles) and lastly inside these folders would be more folders (child issues).

Is this possible?  Perhaps I'm not using the correct template?

I hope this explains things better!

[Josh_Unito]

OK, I think I understand what you're asking for, so depending on how in-depth you want to get, I think this is actually relatively easy to set up. But I will say, scale will become an issue if you use this method.

So if you're a relatively small team (maybe less than 100 tasks per month) you could try this method manually for a while (but if you end up with LOTS of projects, you'll need to automate eventually or use a more sophisticated method of managing your work).

But a simple, manual way to do this is as follows:

1) Create a blank project and name it after your team. e.g., TEAM ABC. So your "project" is actually your team name.

2) Then, use the category field to identify your projects and sort your board by category. 

3) So now, when you click on Board, you can see each project from within the main team folder (as you described) as a "category" in Jira. From there you can add subtasks (child tasks) and also view that same project setup in the timeline view.

Like I said, this is a great way to do things for a small team to match the use case you're describing, but it doesn't scale well if you're talking about hundreds or thousands of tasks. 

For that, you'd either need to purchase a premium plan and maybe try the cross-team planning template. 

Or you could try to set up a custom dashboard in Jira. You could add your own filters to structure it in a way that resembles what you're describing with folders for child issues and projects, etc.

Let me know if that helps!

[Stuart Wicks]

Hello again.  I appreciate the response.

I have already experimented with this setup and I think I will do what I need for now.  We're a small team and will only have a few general high level projects on the go at any one time, no more than 30.

I don't suppose it's possible to move all the existing projects I've already created into this one, including all the subtasks and notes etc?  Or will I have to recreate them all under the new main project?

[Josh_Unito]

Hi @Stuart Wicks ! Sounds good - 30 projects could be a lot to handle manually, but if you're comfortable with that ratio, then good luck!

You can move issues in Jira, though it's a bit tedious. 

You can just click the three dots (ellipsis) to the right-hand side of any issue and click "move" then from the next screen, you select the new project you want to send the issue to.

There are solutions to automate that process. Our app, Unito, is designed to mirror Jira issues into multiple other projects and keep them in sync.

You probably don't need it yet, but when you scale and find it's too challenging to keep up with that many tasks manually, feel free to reach out!

If my solution was helpful, please don't forget to mark it as the accepted solution.

Good luck with everything!

[Stuart Wicks]

Thanks for your help!

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Stuart Wicks,

In term of tracking progress at team or project level, you could create custom dashboards in Jira for each team/project. Have a look over this article:  https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central/An-effective-dashboard-for-Service-Desk-and-Customer-Support/ba-p/2360369

Hope this helps.

Danut.