How to change project lead

[Leah Eichler]

I am trying to change the project lead on an existing project in Jira OnDemand.

I have tried going through the documentation and through Jira options, and I cannot find screens that match those in the descriptions of how to change project lead. Any help is appreciated!

Thank you.

[Gurgen Torosjan · Accepted solution]

Hi, one of the ways to change a project lead would be (you will need administer project priveledge to do either of the below described):

visit https://[your-account].atlassian.net/plugins/servlet/project-config/[project-key]/people

where [your-account] is your ondemand instance, and [project-key] is the 2 or 3 letter project key.

on the page that loads click little pencil icon next to project lead, and choose a new user to be the project lead.

Or:

1. Log in to your jira account.

2. In the projects drop down select the project you want to change the lead for.

3. In the upper right corner of the screen, right below issue search there is "Administer project" button.

4. You will see an administration summary page for that project. In the line that says JIRA Project:

click configure link.

5. Under people you will see the default assingee, name of the current project lead, and roles. Click more link.

6. On that page that comes up, click little pencil icon next to project lead, and choose a new user to be the project lead.

[Tomasz Struczyński]

Just a note, now it's https://[your-account].atlassian.net/plugins/servlet/project-config/[project-key]/roles and "Edit defaults" link on upper right corner.

[Alan]

.../roles seems to redirect to .../people (we're on JIRA cloud)

[Alan]

Found it!

The Project Lead is now settable on the main project page, https://example.atlassian.net/secure/project/EditProject!default.jspa?pid=10000

(YMMV for the domain and Project Id in that URL)

[Scott Beeson]

@Alan That did the trick! Thanks!

[Michael_Mugge]

No longer works. What a terrible product.

[Frank]

Thought so, too.

Here is the trick: Ignore, that you can't delete the current project leads name. Klick into the field "project lead" and start typing the name of the new project lead and the suggestions of names appear in the drop down.

(at least for JIRA server 8.13)

[CécileV]

for Jira server 8.13, if you are admin:

Open the project settings, go to "Users and roles" section, and click "Edit defaults" (top right beside "Add user to a role"). The popup gives you access to the project lead edition.

[Tore Friskopp]

Yes, astonishingly difficult to just to easy stuff. I agree 

To expand on Simon Coles answer:
Read this one: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira/managing-project-role-membership-185729456.html

It's under "The cogwheel" (top right corner symbol) ->Projects -> The project name -> Roles (in the left menu) -> Edit defaults. 

Stupid place to put it. But at least now we all know where it is. 

[Rob White]

Thanks! Crazy hard to find... ugh.

[Mihamina Rakotomandimby]

Spent an hour on this... :-/

[somin wani]

Thanks. This saved me a lot of time

[Benn Gehman]

Yep, Right on!  Works excellently.  One minor modification - the 'Roles' mentioned on my options is "Roles and Users"

[Ray Mosley]

Latest update as I couldn't find the steps listed here as of 2015.

1. Click the cog icon top right and under JIRA Administration > Projects (Choose projects)
2. Press the name of your project to take you to the project administration page
3. On the left hand menu scroll down and find "Users and roles"
4. On the page that loads on the top right of the white page you will see "Add users to a role | edit defaults" press edit defaults
5. Type in the name of the user to change the project lead.

Took me an hour or more to find this.

[spyle]

In v6.4.13#64028-sha1:b7939e9 (standalone version), it is slightly different.

1. Click the cog icon top right and under JIRA Administration > Projects (Choose projects)
2. Press the name of your project to take you to the project administration page
3. On the left hand menu scroll down and find "Roles"
4. Click the pencil icon next to the "Project Lead:" field. 
5. Type in the name of the user to change the project lead.
6. Click "Update" button.

[Frank Schophuizen]

In v7.2.0#72002-sha1:36e1562 (standalone version) it is as @Ray Mosley describes. Step 1 and 2 can be replaced by:

1. Open the project
2. Press the cog icon 'Project settings' on the sidebar

[datecnl]

Why is this so difficult? Under Project, select the project, on the top right is says who the project lead is. It should be possible to change it there, but it is not

[Shaun Hillin]

Its astonishing at how difficult even the most simple tweaks are with this software.

[Jason Pascoe]

Link to roles/lead is visit https://[your-account].atlassian.net/plugins/servlet/project-config/[project-key]/roles

[Simon Cole]

Ludicrously difficult. Aimlessly losing time trying to find how to do this most simple of tasks. 

EDIT: It's hidden behind a link called "Edit Defaults"... sigh An hour of my life I won't get back.

[Volker Butterstein]

For german users: The "Edit Defaults" link is "Voreinstellungen bearbeiten". Hidden like an easteregg. Thanks to Simons answer missed only 15 minutes of my life.

[Tharun Shan]

Oddly, I've been searching for the past 30 min and i'm unable to find the page or link? I'm currently unable to change the user role , any help or suggestions? 

[John Hinnegan]

step 5 does not apply to me

[Bearcat M_ Şándor]

Fixed for me:

The issue that was running into was that my users weren't showing up in the dropdown to select a new user as project lead.  You have to enter a letter in the person's name to get them to show up.

In other words the unfiltered set for display is none, not all as would be expected.  Very strange.

[Stephan Gambke]

And you cannot delete the old name from the input field, you have to start typing the new name on the already filled field.

This is beyond stupid.

[iamkelsishayla]

I couldn't change the project lead and then assumed it was the cos of the default setting. Although when I first went in there it looked like i couldnt change the default, when I started typing it worked and now its changed successfully.

[Susan Stahl]

This worked!!! Thank you!!! :-)

[Stefano Vidonis]

JIRA 7.12  must use "edit defaults" instead the pencil besides name

[Cristian Ciuciu]

Can you help me with this setting? in the newest version its impossible to change?! how can that easy step be so complicated?

[Karol Szacki]

JIRA Server 8.2.4

Project Settings/Users nad roles/Edit defaults

... and You just set new Project Lead, if U are an admin.

Disable adblocks.

[Karol Szacki]

Disable any adblock You have in the browser.

It was the reason I couldn't see the project lead  editable field.

don't know why buit it just works

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Karol

[Alex Suslin]

There is a bug introduced in JIRA  7.2.0 - 7.2.2 at least

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-60081

Project Lead can be changed only by JIRA administrator. Odd

[Simon Cole]

Hi Chris, did you sort this? 

Tore Friskopp's Sep 18, 2015 response should be spot on. 

[Chris Marciante]

I have found that Atlassian products are not very intuitive at all. Doing something this simple should not take this many steps. And I have yet to even get it to work!

[Tore Friskopp]

Simon, haha, I can imagine 

Your post was the one that gave me hope to solve the question. All the other posts were old but you posted yesterday saying that you managed to solve it. Thus I knew that it was possible. Only took me 15 more minutes after that to find the solution, hehe. 

[Simon Cole]

Thanks Tore. I was shaking with rage too much to type all the details  

[Mytch Parks]

These suggestions do not help as they appear out of date. Any other suggestions on how to change a Project Lead?

[Krishna Nair]

In my case I did not find any "Administer project" option(I have JIRA stand alone).But I could find option to edit project lead as follows:

1.Log into JIRA account as an administractor

2.In the projects drop down select the project you want to change the lead for.

3.On the Summary page you will see 'People' section

4.Where project lead,default asignee and Roles have been given

5.There is a 'More' option just below them in same section,click that

6.It will Open 'People' page where on top you will see 'JIRA enables you to allocate particular people to specific roles in your project. Roles are used when defining other settings, like notifications and permissions.' Project Lead 'ID of project lead' and there is a pencil like icon there.

7.Select that pencil like option and you will see Project lead edit popup

Anushree Bhate