Prelude

Switching from one project management platform to another is like moving to a new house—you’ve got to plan, pack, and hope you don’t lose anything along the way. Whether you’re going from Jira to Trello, Asana to Monday.com, or some other combo, the key to a smooth migration is pre-planning. Seriously, don’t skip this step!

Field Mapping

The Digital Tetris Think of your project data as Tetris blocks. If you don’t figure out how to fit all those fields and values together in the new platform, you’re going to end up with a big ol’ mess. Before you hit that “migrate” button, take time to map out where each field, value, and status should land in the new system. This is the difference between a seamless transition and endless hours of “Where did that task go?!”

Master The Art Of String Manipulation

When things get tricky, you’ll often need to manipulate text. Whether it’s cleaning up HTML or XML fragments, or restructuring strings and date formats to fit your specific needs. While I prefer Python for the task, any programming language can get the job done. Just keep your tools sharp!

Users, Statuses and Priority Levels

Wrangling the Herd Next, you’ll need to tackle user roles and statuses. Get everyone in their new roles before migration day to avoid confusion. Also, status workflows can vary wildly between platforms—don’t assume they’ll translate perfectly. Spend some time mapping them out so your team isn’t lost in “in-progress” purgatory.

Hierarchy Remapping: The Project Jenga

Now, let’s talk hierarchy—because not all platforms organize projects the same way. Your old platform’s neat little stack of epics, tasks, and subtasks might not fit perfectly into the new one. You’ll need to remap your project hierarchy, ensuring that the relationships between tasks and their dependencies make sense in the new setup. If you don’t do this right, your carefully built project tower might come tumbling down like a bad game of Jenga.

Remember to remap links and attachments if you’re moving them to a new storage location. Ensure they’re correctly linked in the new setup to avoid losing anything important.

Built-In Tools vs. Custom Solutions: Pray to the API Gods

Some platforms offer built-in migration tools that work like a charm once you have a solid CSV/XLSX file. Others? Not so much. If you’re one of the lucky ones, great! If not, you might have to roll up your sleeves and build your own migration scripts. That’s when you start praying to the API gods for smooth data transfers. And trust me, you’ll want to consider sacrificing some coffee to the debugging deities too.

Test and Verify

After migration, create test scripts to verify the process was successful. These scripts should check both the quantity of migrated items and ensure that key elements match correctly. This helps confirm that nothing was lost or misaligned during the move.

Conclusion

Migrating to a new project management platform can feel daunting, but with proper planning and a healthy dose of coffee, it doesn’t have to be a nightmare. By meticulously mapping out fields, values, users, statuses, etc and leveraging (or creating) the right tools, you’ll ensure a smooth transition. Just remember—preparation IS key, and when in doubt, double-check your API prayers! Goodluck!!

Open to assist

If you ever need assistance with migrating between project management platforms, feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to help. I have recent experience migrations from older platforms to newer ones, as well as between on-prem and cloud environments.