Need to understand how to move a template to a project?

[Monalisa.Azzopardi@chartwell.com]

We have created templates to show specific epics and sub-tasks.  I want to create a new project say Project A and I want to use the template in Project A so I do not have to recreate everything can this be done?

[Daniel Ebers]

Hi Monalisa.Azzopardi@chartwell.com

after reading your requirement I seem to understand you would like to have a single configured project, in other words working as a 'blueprint' - as soon as you need a new project for a team it should be based off that blueprint.

A common scenario, this is what Nic mentioned, is that admins tend to point new projects to shared configuration. However, you are right that a change in that shared configuration would affect all projects referring to that configuration.

One solution could be to copy the 'blueprint' configuration (which is nothing more than one well-defined configuration assigned to one skeleton project - nobody should touch it, at least not without negotiation with the team otherwise new projects would look different than what you initially designed) like workflows, screens, issue type scheme, screen scheme and all what you else might need and then refer a new project to just that copy of the blueprint configuration.

From past experience it showed that it is much easier to standardize projects whenever possible and share configuration whenever this is an option. In cases where a copy of the blueprint configuration is needed you still can take the steps mentioned above - usually, this configuration diverges fast from the blueprint config. Otherwise admins would have chosen the project to just let point to the shared config - it needs a bit of playing around with it, on first sight it can be confusing.
Once implemented it is a pretty neat way to get new projects running and those that need to be specialized at least based on some common configuration.

Regards,
Daniel

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

What do you mean by "template"?  Do you have an app providing templates?  Or do you mean the configuration items (schemes)?

[Monalisa.Azzopardi@chartwell.com]

Hello, we do not have an app providing templates, within our organization we have created a project and that project contains epics, stories, tasks and sub tasks that are the same for all our projects. So for example if I start a new project say 'Working at home' I want to be able to use all the information in the project template so that I do not have to manually input all the entries again. I tried doing it yesterday as follow - Create Project - selected Kanban - Selected Use template - typed in project name and key and then selected our project called retro template - but my project came up empty. Hope that helps

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, there's two uses of the word "template" here, and I don't want to confuse them.

  Jira uses "project template" to describe the standard builds of projects.  When you create a project and choose a template, that "template" is actually a pile of code and config it reads that go and generate a load of config (mostly schemes) and then apply them to the new project.

What you have got as a "template" is what I'd call a "template project" - it's a preconfigured thing that you use as a template in the sense that when you want to create a new project, you would copy all the config and apply the copies to the new project.

Jira does not have a function for that.

What it can do is "use the same config as another project" - this bypasses all the templates and sets up the new project to use the same schemes as an existing project.  You could do that with your template project.  But bear in mind that the schemes are *shared*.  If you make a change to your "template" settings, it will affect all the projects using the shared schemes.

[Monalisa.Azzopardi@chartwell.com]

OK, thank you for the clarification and possible options, but as you said I would not want to impact other projects if I make a change to mine.

Appreciate your assistance.

Thank you,

Monalisa

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

Hi Monalisa.Azzopardi@chartwell.com,

If you want to bulk clone and move the epics, stories, tasks and sub tasks from your template project to your new project you can use our Jira cloud app Deep Clone for Jira.

It is also possible to clone entire Jira company-managed projects along with issues, components, versions and settings. But it uses the same configuration items and if I understood you correctly, you want to prevent that.

If you have questions or feedback about Deep Clone for Jira, don't hesitate to contact us.

[Monalisa.Azzopardi@chartwell.com]

Hi Marlene,

Thanks for the additional information, but not sure we want to go the route of additional software, I will mention that to my management team just in case.

Thank you,

Monalisa

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

You're welcome, Monalisa. And thank you for including Deep Clone for Jira in you considerations.