Best practices for managing access to projects

[alex.hendry]

Hi all,

Just wondering about best practices for managing access to projects (and spaces in Confluence).

I manage the user accounts on a Jira Server (and a Confluence server) that is used for educational purposes for approximately 1000 students at a university. Account management is done programmatically via the API or using script runner.

In some units, students will do a project alone, so they are the only ones working on it. In other units, they may be in a group of 4 or 5 students. Each Tutor then needs access to all their student's projects (or spaces in Confluence). And the Unit Assessor (responsible for the unit) needs access to every student's project (or space) in the unit.

When we started using Jira, we only used it in units that did group projects of 4 or 5 students. The way I set it up is that I would create a group and add the students to the group. Then I would give the group a role in their project with the required permissions. UA and Tutor access would also be done through a group (with only one person in it) as it used the same code to manage access. Additionally, if there were staff changes, it seemed easier to just change the user in one group rather than changing the Tutor or Unit Assessor across dozens or hundreds of projects if I did not use groups.

However, as we are introducing Jira and Confluence to new units where only one student is working on a project, I am wondering if I should continue to use groups or if I should just give each user the appropriate role in the projects they require access to. What do you think?

Thanks!!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Use roles, absolutely.

They are more performant than groups, and you can delegate the maintenance of the people in the project down to the project administrators.