tracking multiple projects per issue

[Mike Chiaramonte]

We are using JIRA 6.2.7 to track issues that will be resolved through one to many technology projects.
Does anyone have recommendations on how to best track those multiple projects?  We want to minimize the effort required to maintain the data, so we want to limit it to a few key attributes per project such as project name, ID, system name, status (red/yellow/green) and planned finish date.  The projects could apply to multiple issues so using a subtask is not appropriate (subtask can only link to one parent issue).

What functionality in JIRA would be best to facilitate this? I am considering two options but please let me know if there's anything else we should consider.  
Option 1: Create new issue type (Project) and link each issue to one or more projects. This option provides flexibility but we don't like the idea of significantly increasing the number of records which will make reporting and tracking a bit less clean.
Option 2: Use the JIRA Versions functionality to represent the projects.  This option provides new functionality especially in the Agile module but there are constraints on the data that we can enter and only administrators can modify the versions.

FYI: The production environment is locked down so we are limited in the plug ins that we can install. Thanks for any thoughts you can provide!

[Boris Berenberg]

I would suggest either using Versions, or Components, or Labels, or a custom field which would provide the values you are looking for. There is no good way to link 1 issue to 2 projects, so even if you did that, you would have to have duplicate records. This is a recipe for disaster as the two will get out of sync.