Is it possible to create a reusable Project Template in Jira?

[Lena Boiser]

Hello. 

I was thinking if there is a way to create a reusable project template in Jira. For example when implementing a new app for a client, the tasks for the team are quite routine and similar. So I was thinking of creating a project, customizing the workflow, and then also creating the specific task tickets that the team needs to execute. Then I'll create new projects based on the configuration and defined tasks from the template project.

I know there is an option to create a project with the same configuration. But I don't think it copies the tickets from the original project. 

Any suggestions on how to achieve what I want to do?

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Lena Boiser ,

you can create a new project with shared configuration (using project source as template) and then clone issues from the project source to project destination.

Unfortunately, there is not a built-in feature to clone project. Btw, there are several external apps that can help you like JIRA Command Line Interface. This plugin is compatible with JIRA Cloud and using it's cloneProject command.

Hope this helps,

Fabio

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

Hi @Lena Boiser

You can copy project templates with our app Deep Clone for Jira.

With Deep Clone you can clone entire Jira projects, along with issues, project settings, components and versions.

An advantage is, that Deep Clone is pretty simple to use and you don't need any special skills to work with it.

If you have questions or feedback, don't hestitate to get in touch with our support.

[Drew McManus]

It's insane that a project template doesn't exist without having to pay a third party provider for it! I keep seeing codefortynine reply to these question in the community board. 

It's clear Atlassian cares more about helping those providers suck revenue out of user's pockets than protecting them. 

What good is Jira if we can't create reusable project templates?!?!? Why should users waste hours of time recreating the exact same project over and over for something like new client onboarding where the dev team needs to repeat the same tasks for each new client?

[Paul Dandurand]

Hi Drew,

It's not that insane if you think about Atlassian's roots with Jira and where it evolved to today. They built a board/sprint app for the developer community and modified the base product to extend their scope of features to include some of pm needs.

I would enjoy learning about how you find Jira to be a "real" project management tool for projects with phases and repeatable methodologies, and even hybrid agile/waterfall needs, which is more common than pure agile for many companies. Personally, I think their tool is still good for developers. That's their strength. Pushing it to true project management and repeatable processes is never going to be a strength without redesigning their entire UX/UI and most of their architecture. Notice they had to take a different approach for Service Management. I think they should have done the same with project management.

Cheers,

Paul

[Drew McManus]

That history is only meaningful to those that experienced it. To anyone onboarding now, what matters most to them is how things work. This is a SaaS product, not an open source community. The weak selection of non-dev PM tools makes the system more frustrating to use, not less. 

And yes, I agree the platform holds the most value for developers, that's the one and only reason we use it because it's still the best option among flawed options the engineering team prefers comparatively. 

And don't get me started about the dev roadmap. That is a case study in poor communication.

[Paul Dandurand]

Good points, Drew. I understand what you mean about non-dev PM tools. Many companies use Jira for dev teams and MS Project or something else for PM needs. That's why we added agile and sprint features in our own PM tool (Pie.me). My team were using Agile and then later Pivotal Tracker. Both were too complex and had a steep learning curve. I saw a market that needs both dev agile combined with PM process and done elegantly. So, we built it. Today, my dev team uses our own Pie agile sprint features. Our customers use it for hybrid agile/waterfall projects along for pure agile or pure waterfall. Then there are true Jira die hides. I then built a real-team 2-way Jira/Pie integration, which has gone up recently on the Atlassian store.

[Micheal Planck]

You can't even create project templates with an app. The apps I have found have massive limitations (such as not copying automation rules, not copying issue layouts) that require manual steps to fix. This is not a knock on the apps; they're doing the best they can.

It's just that Atlassian does not understand the concept of a function. Every single feature they supply is coded by hand separately for every possible instance; this philosophy extends to creating projects, which Atlassian considers to be job-protection for Jira/Confluence administrators because every project must be created by hand.

It's 2023 and I can't use copy-paste on a software product.