Jira transition from Multiple Master Account to a single master account

[Tushardeshpande]

We currently managing projects in Jira using several department-specific master accounts. Our aim is to transition to a single master account that oversees all projects for streamlined management. How do we achieve this transition effectively in terms of project ownership transfer, permissions, and adapting custom configurations?

[Judd Garratt - Path of Trees]

This is a great question!

Assuming the size of each of those department-specific Jira sites is not too large, you can gain many advantages from bringing these all together in one place.

There is a tool for Jira Cloud called 'cloud-to-cloud migration' that can be used for the technical parts of such a shift. This works in a similar way to the Server to Cloud migration assistants. You can select some or all of your Jira data to move and the tool transfers only the configuration entities (e.g. schemes) needed to support the issues selected.

The big pitfall with this kind of thing is entity conflict/bloat in the target Jira site. It's easy to end up with multiple fields, schemes and workflows all doing effectively the same thing (or sometimes working at cross purposes). What I suggest is to map out ahead of time exactly what fields, workflows and schemes will be needed in the end state Jira and then work towards this with each department-specific Jira transfer.

Doing this one department at a time in each transfer window (e.g. weekend, whenever Jira can be locked for such activity) is really the only practical approach. This will let you consolidate/remap entities from each department's Jira data as they arrive in the end-state site (e.g. remapping project workflows to a canonical 'development' workflow). Trying to do this at the end when all the data is mashed in together is a nightmare.

Most permission configurations should get copied correctly. There's a docs article with some strategies for user/group migration to help plan for this. Again, go one department site at a time. If you have concerns over permission escalation for sensitive data, you can use a test site to pull in a handful of issues from different department sites to make sure there's no conflicts.

If you're using Marketplace apps, it's also important to check ahead of time if/how the data from these can be moved. I always suggest getting in touch with the Marketplace vendor upfront as part of planning.

Depending on what modifications each Jira site has, there may be some things that need to be manually re-created, but many things will copy just fine. What sort of custom configurations are we talking here?

Happy to share more thoughts if it would help :)