Jira, being so flexible, can some time be too flexible, and that can be a torture to anyone. Deciding how to setup Jira for multiple teams will either set your teams for success, or a possible failure.
I’ve seen to many times permissions being set incorrectly, freedom to create your own setup, and all in all a mess, when the supporting structure isnt there to facilitate how teams work.
So, lets explore some ideas and concepts for setting up your Jira when you have multiple teams.
The core question to think about is how the teams actually work together.
Now, there are cases where this shouldn’t be the leading prism but these are indeed rare and more unique.
But why should this matter to begin with? The issue at heart is the ability for the teams to cooperate smoothly. Otherwise, Jira will become an overhead for your teams, they will be reluctant to use it, and you can see how tracking and monitoring progress goes along with it.
Question to ask when deciding on a single or multiple projects
Generally, teams who work together should be together in Jira.
When teams work together on the same deliverable, that’s a sign towards working under the same project in Jira.
If they have different versions released, that’s a sign for different projects.
If they touch base rarely, that probably also a sign for different projects.
If joining teams can share the same workflow, types or other jira elements, thats a sign for using the same project.
There could be many other questions, broader, or more specific to point you in the right direction, but the above questions should be the types of question to consider how you want to set things up.
When using a single project
When you are using a single project to host the work of multiple teams there are several best practices to consider.
Boards and Filters
Each team should have its own board so their tasks are easily available. To accomplish that, decide on how to designate tasks/stories/epics to a team and build the relevant filters accordingly.
You should also add a general board with no team filter from where the backlog will be managed. You can also use that board to see overall progression.
Another option, would be to using a single board with teams as quick filters.
Same kind of work
Teams working together should have the same (or atleast similar) working processes in Jira. This should relate to issue types, fields and information captured in the issue types, statuses, and to a lesser extent, release versions and components.
When any team asks for something different, dont be quick to satisfy their requirement. Its a slippery slope and you will quickly find yourself with a jira that serves everyone but functions for no one.
Use the project roadmap
One of the benefits of using a single project is the roadmap. This will provide you a gantt view across all teams in the project and you can easily monitor progression and dependencies.
When using stand alone projects
When using stand alone projects, you have greater flexibility in customizing how the projects are configured without affecting other teams. This option should be considered when the team’s work isn’t dependent as much (or at all) on other teams.
team vs company managed
When setting up stand alone projects you can consider another flavor of jira which is team managed projects.
Compared to company managed projects, Team managed projects allow for its own users to configure them (as opposed to a jira product or site admin managing company project). You should make sure that whom ever admins the project, knows how to to do it. You dont want to be fielding calls putting out fires set by poor configurations.
Team managed projects are planned to exist in silos and do not share information with other projects easily. They also have other limitations to consider. For a longer discussion on team managed projects vs company managed projects check this link.
The Create team project permission
Specifically for team managed projects, when setting up Jira initially, anyone can create a project. This may or may not fit with your Jira strategy. Be sure to set that permission according to your organizational needs.
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