Kickstart Your New Project
Set up your project for success in just 15 minutes by connecting the work to broader goals, adding essential details, and creating a central hub for project information.
PREP TIME
0m
Run TIME
15m
Persons
1
5-second summary
- Create a new project in your project management system.
- Add key details, like a description of the project, contributors and followers who should get updates, and related goals and initiatives.
- Turn your project into a centralized knowledge hub, where work is discussed and tracked.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
- Project management tool, like Atlassian Home or Jira
- Team communication tool, like Slack or Teams
PLAY resources
How to kickstart a new project
Set up your project for success in just 15 minutes.
What is the difference between a project and a task or group of tasks?
A project is more than a pile of tasks. It’s a time-bound effort to achieve a specific outcome, usually with multiple stakeholders who need to coordinate. A group of tasks is simply work items that need to be done, without a larger change, outcome, or group of collaborators around them.
Why run the Kickstart Your New Project Play?
Every new project deserves a strong start. Investing 15 minutes upfront:
- Makes it easy for contributors and stakeholders to find key information
- Helps teams discover and connect with your work
- Increases the likelihood of success
When should you run this Play?
You can run this Play whenever you start a new project.
3 benefits of setting up a project and making it visible
In 2024, the Teamwork Lab surveyed 12,000 knowledge workers and 200 executives across four continents about the future of work.
Findings:
High-performing teams make their work discoverable through organized project documentation in one central location, like Atlassian Home. Teams that make information self-serve are:
- 4.9x more likely to be effective
- 4.4x more likely to be productive
- 4.4x more likely to be adaptable
1. Create a project
Est. time: 2 MIN
Before diving into a new initiative, decide if the work is a group of tasks or a project. Ask yourself or your team:
a. Could I finish this work solo in a few days without formal check-ins?
If yes → likely just tasks
b. Is there a clear, named outcome I’d write on a slide or document (not just “do these 10 things”)?
If yes → project
c. Would more than one team or stakeholder group reasonably care about updates or status?
If yes → project
d. Is there meaningful risk, coordination, or sequencing to manage?
-
If yes → project
If you answered “yes” to b, c, and/or d, set up a new project using the project management tool of your choice, like Atlassian Home or Jira. If a project is large enough, and different components have distinct success metrics, consider breaking them into separate projects.
TIP: Make it easy for everyone to find the project
Project leads should curate information differently for (and make their project discoverable by) XF collaborators/stakeholders of their project who aren't involved in the day-to-day. If Jira is what your team is using to track projects at a granular level, someone shouldn't have to sift through all of your tasks to try to figure out what's going on.
2. Write a strong project description
Est. time: 2 MIN
When you create the project, add a short but clear description to help stakeholders, collaborators, and leaders quickly understand:
a. What we’re doing: Describe the project. Give collaborators a complete picture at a glance, that clarifies what you’re doing and why.
b. Why we’re doing it: Clearly explain why the project is timely and necessary. In other words, why this work? And why now? (If you can’t easily explain the “so what”, it’s a sign more planning is needed.)
c. How we’ll know we’re successful: How will you determine if this project is a win? Defining this will make it easier to show impact and stay focused.
TIP: Use AI as your teammate
Ask AI, like Atlassian Rovo, to help write or edit your project description, ensuring it’s sharp, effective, and includes the context your audience needs. You can also use the Define AI’s Project Role Play to explore ways to use AI to increase productivity and innovation during this project.
3. Add contributors and followers
Est. time: 5 min
Different types of stakeholders will need different types of information about the project. Make a list of contributors and followers. Then, add them to your project. (The name for these users varies by project management tool. Look for a way to add “contributors,” “followers,” “team members,” “users,” “watchers,” or something similar.)
|
| Contributors | Followers |
| Who they are | People who have day-to-day involvement in the project and are critical to its success | Cross-functional collaborators and stakeholders who are not involved day to day but are invested in the project’s success |
| Information they need |
|
|
After adding contributors and followers to the project, create a Slack or Teams channel with the same people for daily communication. If possible, integrate your project management system and your communication tool (e.g., Jira and Slack), so updates made in the project management system automatically get posted in the communication channel.
TIP: Map out your network of teams
Use the Network of Teams Play to identify who's involved in the success of a project and how to keep those relationships healthy.
4. Connect the project to goals and other related projects
Est. time: 2 min
Every project should ladder up to a broader goal to ensure your team is spending time and energy on the work that matters most. Connect your project to the goal(s) it supports by integrating with your goal-tracking tool (like Atlassian Goals) or by simply listing the related team-level and business-level goals in the project description.
Then, within your project management tool, link your project to other initiatives within your team and across the organization. This creates a network of interconnected projects to ensure alignment and make cross-functional collaboration easier.
TIP: Adjust goals and priorities if needed
If the project doesn’t clearly ladder up to an existing goal, consider whether:
a) It’s important enough to add or edit a goal so it reflects updated priorities.
b) It sits outside of the team’s top priorities, in which case it may make sense to pause and revisit at a later date.
5. Add relevant links and tags
Est. time: 2 min
If you’re using other tools to execute or track deliverables or related tasks, cross-post links in all tools for easy access. For example, if you’re tracking the project in Jira and the individual tasks in Trello, add the Jira epic link to the Trello board and vice versa.
If applicable, add tags to your projects and tasks (e.g., #FY25 #Engineering #Q2 #AI) so others can easily filter and track relevant projects easily. Watch the spelling, as a typo can create a new tag instead of adding the intended one.
TIP: Poll the audience
If you’re not sure about related projects to link to relevant tags, ask your team to get their input.
6. Share your project page
Est. time: 1 min
Now that your project is set up, share the main project page or board with colleagues and leaders to provide one place where they can track updates.
Follow-up
Keep Critical Information Flowing with Stakeholders
Build a rhythm of proactive project communication with stakeholders to minimize delays and increase success.
Still have questions?
Start a conversation with other Atlassian Team Playbook users, get support, or provide feedback.
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A view of Atlassian Home, where team members and stakeholders can see their work at a glance
Creating a new project in Atlassian Home
In Atlassian, stakeholders can be added as “contributors” (who are actively involved in the project) or “followers” (who simply want to track progress).
Adding tags makes it easy for others to see what work is happening, who’s working on it, what knowledge they’ve gathered, and how it’s all going
Share your project board with collaborators and leaders
