When working with Jira, one often-overlooked factor is project size. Over the years, we’ve seen projects containing millions of issues — and while Jira can technically handle them, projects that large can introduce performance challenges, complicate reporting, and make ongoing management unnecessarily difficult.
In this post, we’ll share our perspective on optimal project sizing, why “too big” and “too small” can both be problematic, and strategies you can use to keep Jira projects healthy and manageable.
When a Jira Project Gets Too Big
If a project grows beyond 50,000 issues, it’s time to start thinking about strategies to manage its size. While Jira projects are often treated as permanent “containers” rather than time-bound initiatives, an oversized project can lead to:
- Performance issues – Bulk operations, migrations, and searches slow down significantly.
- Complex reporting – Filters, dashboards, and queries become harder to maintain.
- Data migration difficulties – Moving large projects between instances (or even within Jira Cloud) is slow and error-prone.
Strategies for Managing Large Projects
- Regular Cleanup
- Archive issues that are no longer relevant.
- Move issues older than two years into an archival project.
- Splitting Projects When Needed
- While creating a new project for every release or year isn’t necessary, splitting by major product lines, services, or long-term milestones can help keep size under control.
- Establishing Guidelines
- Have a clear project creation strategy so teams don’t add to a single project indefinitely without review.
When Projects Are Too Small
On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve seen projects with fewer than 50 issues over two years. While this is less harmful than oversized projects, very small projects can:
- Create administrative clutter for Jira admins.
- Fragment data, making reporting harder.
- Result in unnecessary maintenance effort.
In many cases, these smaller efforts could have been epics or components within a larger project rather than separate projects.
Striking the Right Balance
There’s no universal “perfect” project size for Jira. Instead, consider:
- Purpose – Is the project ongoing (e.g., a service desk) or time-bound?
- Growth rate – How quickly are issues being created?
- Reporting needs – Does the current size make insights easy or difficult to obtain?
Final Thoughts
While small projects are more of an administrative inconvenience, oversized projects can cause significant performance and management problems. We recommend periodically reviewing project sizes and making proactive adjustments before they become a bottleneck.
If your team needs help with project cleanup, archival, or restructuring, we can assess your Jira setup, understand your goals, and recommend the most effective strategy.