You’ve probably already encountered the option to choose between team-managed and company-managed projects if you’ve started configuring your Jira instance. This choice appears insignificant—until it isn’t. If you pick the incorrect one, you might have to redo everything from scratch, run into feature constraints, or become bogged down in administrative labour.
Before you get to the setup step, this guide explains how these two project kinds affect the duties, workflow, and scalability of your team. Selecting the appropriate base project type will save you hours later, whether you’re customising workflows or setting up permissions (as we describe here).
Which Two Types of Jira Projects Are There?
Fundamentally, Jira Cloud has two project types:
- Team-managed (formerly Next-Gen): Designed to provide team members with DIY control over projects.
- Company-managed (formerly Classic): Run by Jira administrators with shared schemes across several projects.
Although both are capable of resolving simple problems, team-managed projects offer flexibility and autonomy, while company-managed projects offer a more robust structure.
What Exactly Are Company-managed and Team-managed Projects?
Team-led: Designed for Flexibility and Speed
A self-service approach designed with autonomy in mind is team-managed projects. These are perfect for fast-growing startups or non-technical teams who wish to:
- Get moving as soon as possible. Change problem kinds, workflows, and fields as needed.
- Steer clear of central bottlenecks, such as waiting on a Jira administrator.
- Each project is entirely independent.
One team-managed project’s modifications won’t impact another. That is a boon for self-reliance but a bane for large-scale consistency.
Management of the company: Organized and Expandable
- Consider company-managed projects as Jira of the infrastructure kind. Issue categories, fields, permissions, and workflows are all governed by shared schemes in this case.
- Control, homogeneity, and enterprise-grade governance are the trade-offs for their central administration, which does require more work up front.
- In situations involving cross-functional teams, portfolio-level reporting, or regulatory requirements, selecting a scalable system is more important than simply selecting a project type.
Want to know more about configuration options for company-managed projects? We cover them in detail in our Jira Configuration guide.
Important Distinctions That Affect Your Group
Selecting one of these two isn’t about deciding which is “better.” It’s about being aware of the trade-offs depending on how your team operates.
| Features | Team managed | Company managed |
| Who configures it | Project admins | Jira admins |
| Workflow customization | Drag and drop per project | Centralized scheme logic |
| Field reuse | Local only | Shared across project |
| Reports and dashboard | Basics | Advance project |
| Permission | Project specified roles | Managed via permission |
| Board flexibility | Kanban per project | Reuseable board |
| Best for | Startups, single teams | Enterprises |
Typical Situations: Actual Team Configurations
Here are some real-world situations that Jira teams frequently encounter to help you see when each type works best.
First Scenario: An Upstart Marketing Group
As a five-person team, you are launching campaigns and managing several clients. You require zero administrative red tape, ad hoc work kinds, and quick response times. You do not intend to use predefined procedures or interface with other Jira projects.
Make use of Team-managed. You’ll adore the independence.
Scenario 2: Four development teams in a product department
Using Scrum, you oversee four cross-functional development teams. You wish to provide uniform sprint reports, monitor team velocity, and impose a common definition of “Done.” Every project needs to follow the audit and security policies.
Choose “company-managed.” Your PMs and dev leads will.
Scenario 3: A Creative Agency with Dozens of Clients
You want unique workflows per client but need consistent time-tracking fields and billing categories across all projects. Your project managers also need to cross-report progress to clients and leadership.
Start with Company-managed for field control, but consider hybrid setups for flexibility.
Which Type of Jira Project Is Required?
Still unsure? Here’s a straightforward way to look at it: team-managed is probably your sweet spot if your team prioritizes speed, autonomy, and flexibility and you’re only overseeing one or two projects. However, company-managed is designed for that complexity if you’re scaling, collaborating across departments, or want stringent oversight and consistent practices. Consider this:
- Is it necessary to report on multiple projects?
- Will fields or workflows be reused by several teams?
- Is there a Jira administrator in charge of overseeing shared configurations?
If you said “yes” to the majority of these, becoming company-managed will help you avoid problems later on. If not, take advantage of the flexibility that comes with a team-managed system and, when you’re ready, move into more structure.
Automation’s Function: Live Comparison
Jira automation is a huge productivity gain, but the type of project you’re working on will determine how much you can automate.
Automation rules are limited to a single project in team-managed projects. This is OK for simple triggers, such as sending a Slack message when a problem is fixed or updating a task’s status when a new assignee is added. However, the restrictions rapidly become apparent: you are unable to link issues across projects, interact with People-type variables, use global rule templates, and smart values are restricted. Without a sprint in progress, even features like automatically transferring issues from the backlog to a board won’t function.
Now compare that to company-managed projects, where automation rules are global, scalable, and deeply integrated. Want to trigger an action when an issue moves in another project? Done. Need to send email alerts to department heads when bugs hit a certain severity? No problem. These rules can use complex logic, reference fields from other projects, and even create cascading workflows across teams. For organizations relying on efficient, interconnected automation company managed is the only serious option.
False Beliefs That Cause Bad Setup
Before they cause problems later, let’s dispel a few widespread misconceptions.
Only non-tech teams should use team management.
Although a lot of teams in marketing, design, or content utilize it, many software teams also use it for rapid iteration. What your team does is less important than how much governance you require.
We can change the type of project at any time.
You can, in theory, but it’s a mess. A one-click conversion is not available in Jira. It is necessary to manually duplicate setups, remap fields, and handle lost metadata when moving from team-managed to company-managed. Not enjoyable.
Projects managed by a team have less power.
They are simply different, not “weaker.” They prioritize customisation for each project over reusability. However, in the long run, corporate management still prevails while scaling.
The Trade-Off Between Autonomy and Governance
Giving teams the flexibility they desire without compromising the consistency that leadership requires is a basic dilemma that Jira administrators frequently face.
Autonomy
Project managers can customize anything to fit their workflow when they have autonomy.
Governance
Auditability, cross-project reporting, and long-term structure are all guaranteed by governance.
The most successful teams choose the appropriate project type and establish guidelines for its application. For instance:
- For isolated projects with little requirement for reporting, use team-managed.
- For anything pertaining to OKR tracking, shared components, or performance metrics, use company-managed.
Limit who is able to produce each variety, or establish selection criteria.
Growth, Reporting, and Integration: Unspoken Factors
1. Are you able to report on several team-managed projects?
Yes, but only in certain circumstances. You’ll depend more on third-party technologies or external dashboards. When complicated, cross-project reporting is required, company-managed excels, particularly for Agile metrics.
2. How about app connections like Xray, Tempo, or Zephyr?
The majority of apps and plugins were developed for company-managed projects. Many integrations still provide greater capabilities for configurations controlled by the organization, even though support is getting better.
3. What occurs as your team expands?
Team-managed may seem ideal at first, but it might be difficult to switch midstream if you eventually need advanced controls, user roles, field-level security, or department-spanning automation logic. Consider your growth trajectory while making your decision.
Your Checklist for Pre-Configuration
Prior to starting your next Jira project, respond to these questions:
- Can this project operate independently, or will it have to adhere to company-wide procedures?
- Do we want to reuse processes, problem kinds, or fields?
- Will the project be reported to external stakeholders or leadership?
- Are Jira administrators on hand to set up schemes if necessary?
- Will we be integrating with tools for budgeting, testing, or time tracking?
Your responses can help you prevent setup remorse and make your decision clear.
The Role of the Code Desk
In the UK and elsewhere, Code Desk has collaborated with startups, agencies, and major corporations to design Jira environments that grow with their businesses. We can assist whether you’re just getting started or need to examine disorganized project setups:
- Depending on your structure, decide whether to utilize company-managed or team-managed.
- Set up workflows, permission tiers, and common schemes.
- Projects can be moved or combined with little data loss.
- Configure functional third-party connectors and automation.
Let’s discuss Jira configuration and create a system that supports you rather than hinders you.
Last Remarks
Selecting the appropriate Jira project type is a foundation, not a checkbox. It influences how you report progress, how your team operates, and how quickly you can grow. Make that choice as soon as possible, and consider your actual needs rather than just what is convenient at the moment. Are fields and screens in Jira already configured?
Make sure your setup fits the type of project you are working on. In our other piece, Jira Configuration, we delve deeper into best practices for project configuration. The time to do it correctly is now. For more information, Visit Now https://code-desk.com/services/services-jira-configuration/
