What are team-managed and company-managed projects?

Projects in Jira Work Management can be created as either team-managed or company-managed projects. The core functionality of these project types are the same, but there are key differences you should know in order to decide what’s right for you and your team. The fundamental difference between the two project types is how they are administered, and whether that occurs at the team level or at a company/Jira admin level.

The difference between team-managed and company-managed projects

Team-managed projects offer a powerful yet simple configuration that's independent of other projects on your instance. Project admins administer and have total control over the configuration of their projects. This includes configuring workflows, custom fields, issue types, permissions, and more without having to contact a Jira admin. With team-managed projects, you don’t need to worry about impacting other projects on the same instance. For example, you may be a team with unique processes and different workflows that separates you from other teams in your company.

Company-managed projects offer advanced shared configuration. Through the use of schemes, multiple company-managed projects can share the same configuration. Project admins in a company-managed project can focus on what’s important such as managing the project itself, rather than modifying their project’s configuration. Most configuration changes are managed by the Jira admin who administers all projects on the instance. Company-managed projects allow a standardized way of working across multiple projects. For example, you may want to have the same workflow across multiple design projects in your company. When a Jira admin changes a scheme or screen, all company-managed projects using that scheme will be changed too. Learn how to migrate between team-managed and company-managed projects.

Choose between a company-managed or team-managed project

The fundamental difference between the two project types is how they are administered, and whether that occurs at the team level or at a company/Jira admin level. 

Team-managed projects are for teams who want to control their own working processes and practices in a self-contained space. Project admins have control over the configuration for each singular team-managed project without needing to worry about impacting other projects on the same instance or contacting a Jira admin.

Choose a team-managed project if:

• Your team wants easier project configuration to get started quickly

• You want a self-contained space to manage your team’s work

• You want free reign as a project admin in controlling configuration for singular team-managed projects.

Company-managed projects are for teams who work with other teams across many projects in a standard way. Encourage and promote organizational best practices and processes through shared configuration across multiple company-managed projects.

Choose a company-managed project if:

• You want to standardize configuration across multiple projects in your organization

• You want detailed permission schemes, complete control over issue types and custom fields, and more

• You require advanced features that aren’t available in team-managed projects.