Shouldn't Atlas Projects be Similar to Jira Projects?

[Christel Gray]

Is it just me or does anyone else get confused about the Atlas Projects? In my mind, I'd think Atlas Projects to align to Jira Projects instead of Jira Epics. We have cross functional teams working on a Jira Project, so having one Jira Project tied to one Atlas Project makes sense. 

But Atlassian seems to feel that an Atlas Project should be connected to a Jira Epic. (https://intercom.help/atlas-by-atlassian/en/articles/6474633-connect-your-atlas-projects-to-jira-epics)

I'm curious what others think and learn what I am missing.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

This does make some sense.  

I completely understand why people would start with Atlas Project = Jira Project, and I don't think it's a bad approach in some cases.

But that's not how most Jira users work.  I think this is down to the names of the different objects. 

In Atlas, a project is what you expect from the word in the conventional sense - it's a pile of work that many teams might need to work on, with a timeline (if not deadline) - you're saying "we will deliver X, aiming to do it by Y". 

In Jira, a project is a collection of issues that need to be configured the same (most importantly in the config - who can do what with them), grouped together for any number of different reasons.  A project could be a single deliverable with a timeline, but it could be parts of a deliverable alongside other projects, it could represent a team's work, it could be a neverending stream of new issues (support project for example)

However, in Jira, an Epic is a pile of work that many teams might need to work on, with a timeline (if not deadline) - you're saying "we will deliver X, aiming to do it by Y". 

So I think the Atlas project -> Jira Epic mapping makes a lot more sense than project = project.

But I do think it would be good to be able to map project = project in some cases.  Some Jira projects really are projects.  I've set up an automation that does "if project in (a, b, c) and issue is created, set epic link to the epic for a, b, or c, so that Atlas recognises them correctly" quite recently.

[Christel Gray]

Thanks for commenting, Nic.

Yes, our Jira projects are projects with cross functional teams working on them. So to be able to have Atlas projects = Jira projects would be ideal so we can give an update at the project level.

At the least, Atlassian should not have name them "projects" in Atlas as that tends to lead to confusion. 

Just my 2 cents.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think your 2c is right, it would be useful to have project = project, and I don't like that they have the same name for different ideas.  Personally, I'd prefer to change the name in Jira, but there's 20 years of history to deal with there.