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Everything you want to know about next-gen projects in Jira Cloud
What are Jira's next-gen projects?
Next-gen projects are:
- Faster to set-up than classic projects. You can quickly toggle on features like sprints or reports multiple layers of settings.
- Easier to configure than classic projects. You can easily configure settings like issue types and fields with drag-and-drop editing and reordering all in a single place.
- Configured by project team members. Any team member with the project's admin role will can modify the settings of their next-gen projects.
- Contained to themselves. There currently is no way to associate with other project settings, schemes, global configuration objects.
- Only available on the Cloud platform. By default, any licensed user can create these projects. You can change that if you need (see below).
Jira's next-gen projects simplify how admins and end-users set up their projects. They come with a re-imagined model for creating, editing and representing project settings.
In classic projects, Jira admins configure a project using schemes to map shared objects to projects, like issue types, workflows, fields, and permissions. While schemes maximize the ability to share configurations across multiple projects, they can be difficult to understand.
Over time, we've added additional layers of configuration to improve customization. But, these layers can make it more difficult for admins to learn and maintain their setup. We built next-gen projects to help fix this. They're easy to set up and will grow with more straight-forward customizations in the future.
Classic projects also leverage objects that exist only at a global level, across your entire Jira site. That makes it easy for Jira admins to push configuration changes across a bunch of projects. But conversely, end users are unable to manage configuration for their own projects. The burden of configuration falls entirely on Jira admins, making it a complex and time-consuming process to customize a project every time a new project or a new team comes to your Jira site.
With next-gen projects, we empower the project owners themselves to customize their projects based on their unique needs without bothering a Jira admin to help them. They can easily add or remove fields to their issue types, set up some interesting automated rules and more.
We know that organizations have multiple teams and projects with common workflows and standardized reporting. In the future, we will be working on making configuration reusable across different next-gen projects. For now, configuration is bounded by the project and fully controllable by project admins.
How do I know if I'm in a next-gen project?
From your project sidebar, select Project settings. If you see a Features item in your project settings, then you are in a next-gen project. Select the Features item and you'll see some toggles. This is just one of the things that make next-gen projects unique, the ability to toggle features in one click without multiple layers of settings.
If you see a Summary item in your project settings, then you are in a classic project. The Summary page shows all the advanced configuration and various schemes used to manage your project. It's powerful stuff, but can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it.
What are the differences between next-gen and classic projects?
Next-gen software projects are built for modern software development. They come with:
- An overhauled configuration experience that makes Jira faster and easier to set up
- New boards that allow you to mix and match the best features of Scrum and Kanban
- A new roadmap that improves your ability to plan long-term and share your plans with stakeholders
Here is a more detailed breakdown of the differences:
Classic projects | Next-gen projects |
Expert configuration Complete control over workflows, issue types, custom fields, permissions, and just about anything else you can think of. | Lightweight configuration Simple setup for issue types, custom fields, permission and status transition rules. |
Centralized management by Jira admins Standardized configuration for the way teams work with the ability to share that configuration across projects. Configuration objects (like issue types, fields, and workflows) are globally reusable across your Jira site. | Independent management by project members Teams configure their project's settings without impacting other projects. Empowers teams to manage their projects, without bothering a Jira admin or breaking global configuration. |
Detailed permissions Detailed and granular project permissions. Get more specific about who can do what in your project. | Simplified permissions Simple access permissions only. Choose if a project can be accessed by the team, or by everyone on your Jira site. |
| In Jira Software (software projects) | |
Advanced custom fields Add custom fields to track more detailed information. Customize your issue types with required fields, default values, checkboxes, dates, labels, selectors, attachments and more. | Basic custom fields Create custom text, number, date, time, and label fields for your project's issue types. Required fields, default values and more custom field types and options coming soon. Priority and resolution per project is coming soon. |
Epics and sub-tasks Group and break down work, allowing teams to get as granular or as high-level as they need to. | Epics only Group issues into high-level milestones, themes or categories. Sub-tasks coming soon. |
Story points and time estimation Estimate your team's current performance and forecast what's to come using story points or time estimates. | Story point estimation only Estimate your team's current performance and forecast what's to come using story points. Time estimation coming soon. |
Comprehensive agile reporting Gain insights into all aspects of your team's agile performance such as velocity, cycle times, burndowns, and more. | Essential agile reporting Track and analyze your team's output with velocity and burnup charts. |
Advanced workflows Fully customize your workflows, statuses and issue transitions. Automate certain Jira tasks using post functions, validations, and conditions. | Rules Easily automate repetitive actions when you move issues across the board or into new statuses. Rules add more power to your board, allowing you to track work in more detailed ways. Workflow configuration coming soon. |
No counterpart in classic projects. | Roadmap (built into next-gen software projects) Track your project's milestones, themes or epics with a brand new timeline view. Plan, manage, and visualize epics on your team's roadmap, and share it with stakeholders for easy communication. |
Can I read more upcoming features on next-gen projects?
To find out what's shipped and what's coming for next-gen software projects, check out our public roadmap.
How can I create next-gen projects?
To create a next-gen project:
- Choose the Jira icon (
or 
) > Projects. - Select Create project.
- Select Try a next-gen project.
- Give your project a name. You can change your template to choose either Next-gen Scrum or Next-gen Kanban by selecting Change template.
- Choose who can access your project.
- Select Create.
If you don't see the Try a next-gen project option, select Change template when asked to name your project. Then, select the Agility project template (the former name of next-gen projects).
Read more about creating and editing next-gen projects.
I just created a next-gen project. Why are there so few settings? Where are my schemes?
Next-gen projects represent the future of Jira. That means trimming some of the fat. We added the most-needed, most-common project settings first. And, we're constantly adding additional settings based on your feedback.
Next-gen projects don't have schemes. Your next-gen project's setup objects – for example, its issue types and fields – are all contained within the project. Since these objects are no longer dumped in the pool of global objects on your Jira site, you don't need schemes!
Soon, we'll give you the ability to extract your next-gen project settings into their own template, and link two or more projects' settings together. If you need to share configurations across projects today, you might be happier with a classic project.
What is an agility project? Why are you changing names?
"Agility" was a beta name we used during our newest projects' soft beta period. Now that we're excited by the amount of features and capability these projects bring, we're rolling them out to more people. So, the beta name had to go.
You might have seen the word "agility" in our documentation, blogs or on the Atlassian Community. And, you may still see the term in your Jira site. Don't worry too much, there are no feature differences between next-gen and agility projects. They are one and the same thing in terms of functionality. We just renamed them to avoid confusing new users.
What permission do I need to create a next-gen project? Can I control who creates these projects?
Jira admins can control which groups of users create next-gen projects using the Create independent projects global permission. Read more about global permissions.
How do I add a new status to my workflow?
You can add a new status directly on your board. Simply add a new column, and drag and drop it into the spot you want. Next-gen projects support neat, linear workflows at the moment. More workflow configuration is coming soon.
What are rules?
Rules replace advanced workflow configuration operations like post functions, validations, conditions. They are much easier to set up and edit, if you need.
Currently, there are two rules available to next-gen software projects:
- Automatically change an issue's assignee
- Automatically update an issue field
To try out a rule:
- On your board, click the more icon (•••) > Manage rules.
- Click Add rule.
- Choose the rule you want to add from the list, then click Select.
- Fill out the required information to set up your rule, and click Add.
More rules are coming soon. Check out some examples of how you might use a rule.
Why aren't the issue types and custom fields I create in next-gen projects available to classic projects?
Any project configuration or customization you do in a next-gen project is independent and only available for that project. If you need to share issue types and custom fields across multiple projects, you might be happier with a classic project.
Can I reuse an issue type or custom field I created in one next-gen project in another next-gen project?
Today, you can't reuse an issue type or status from one next-gen project in another next-gen project. Soon, we'll introduce project templates which allow you to save and share an entire project configuration (issue types, fields, workflow, and more). Other teams in your organization can use these templates as a quick starting place for their own next-gen projects, or you can link a few projects together to share their settings.
Would all my ecosystem apps work in next-gen projects?
Yes! Most everything should work properly. But, we have borked a few things. If you're developing an app, learn what you need to know developing for next-gen projects.
Can I migrate or convert a next-gen project to classic project?
Jira admins can create a classic project and move their next-gen project issues into the new, classic project. Read more about migrating from next-gen to classic projects.
If you're not a Jira admin, ask your Jira admin to do this for you.
I don't want a next-gen project. Where are the templates I'm used to?
To create a classic project:
- Choose the Jira icon ( or ) > Projects.
- Select Create project.
- Select Classic project.
- Give your project a name. You can change your template to choose any of the familiar Jira templates you know and love by selecting Change template.
- Select Create.
If you don't see the classic project option, select Change template when asked to name your project. Then, select any project template except the Agility project template (the former name of next-gen projects).
Read more about creating classic projects.
Rayen Magpantay
Atlassian Team
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