Recently, on June 22nd, Atlassian made an announcement that has stirred up quite a bit of discussion in the Jira community: Jira "Projects" are being renamed to "Spaces." As a consultant deeply ingrained in the Atlassian ecosystem, this news, frankly, leaves me unhappy. While there might be a grander vision behind it, the immediate impact, in my opinion, will be confusion.
What is a "Project" Anyway? (And How Jira Used It)
Let's step back for a moment and consider the traditional definition of a project. In most contexts, a project is a time-bound activity with a clear goal, requiring specific resources and a defined plan. Think of "building a bridge over the River Thames" – a clear objective, timeline, and resources.
Now, let's look at Jira. In Jira, the concept of a "project" has always been a bit different. Jira projects typically lack inherent features like a project goal field, start date, or end date. For a long time, I've described Jira projects as simply "containers for issues."
Despite this, the term "project" still made sense for many real-world use cases. If you had a six-month or one-year initiative, creating a Jira project for it was intuitive. While you couldn't enforce a "project closure" date directly, you could manage access via permission schemes to make it read-only once complete.
Alternatively, some organizations used Epics or even custom issue types like "Initiative" or "Project" within a broader, ongoing Jira project. This flexibility allowed Jira to adapt to various organizational structures, including continuous "Business As Usual" (BAU) activities, where "project" still served as a logical container.
The "Spaces" Renaming: A Step Towards Confusion?
Now, with Atlassian renaming "Projects" to "Spaces," I believe we're heading for widespread confusion. Why? Because the established understanding of "project" within Jira, and within the broader business world, is deeply ingrained.
My suspicion (and I'm being a bit harsh on Atlassian here) is that this change is part of a larger strategy to bundle and cross-sell more products. Perhaps they envision "Spaces" becoming a more generic collaboration hub, blurring the lines between Jira and Confluence, encouraging users to adopt both as a single package. While making money and being profitable is understandable for any company, I worry about the user experience during this transition.
If "projects" are no longer "projects," it's bound to confuse a large base of existing Jira and Confluence users. Atlassian might be aiming for consistency or a more "generic" term like "work item," but what about the millions who have been using Jira for years?
The Practical Implications for Admins & Users
As Jira consultants and administrators, we'll survive. Our businesses and jobs aren't at risk. However, the immediate concern is the increased hassle of explanation. Imagine trying to explain this to users, especially in a remote work environment:
"No, 'space' is a 'space,' but 'project' is also a 'space,' and this 'space' is different from that 'space'..." It's a linguistic minefield!
We'll need to provide extensive context: "No, until June, it was an 'issue,' now it's a 'work item' because they wanted to generalize it, and now we have 'spaces,' which aren't really 'spaces' but 'projects,' but also containers..."
Jira, to be honest, and Confluence, have always been tools for a more technical audience. And there's nothing wrong with that! We shouldn't be ashamed that Jira has a steeper learning curve than some other tools. Even when it was simply "Jira Software" or "Jira Core," we were able to successfully onboard non-technical teams. The interface itself isn't simple, and it always requires some degree of training and explanation of core concepts. You can't just send a link and expect someone to be immediately productive with their "work management."
This renaming, in my view, adds an unnecessary layer of complexity and confusion to an already rich (and sometimes challenging) tool ecosystem. It feels like a push to make Jira a "SaaS-based tool for any use case," even if it means sacrificing clarity for existing users.
I thought it was important to share my thoughts on this significant change. What do you think about "Projects" becoming "Spaces"? Let me know in the comments.