Data Migration Question (maintaining parent child relationship during import)

[Janany Satkunam]

Trying to do migration using csv file (Azure DevOps to Jira Cloud).  We decided to use Feature in DevOps as the Epics.  Stories and Bugs are always child of Feature. Tasks can be children of Stories or Bugs only.  So I want to import the data where I map Task to sub task and maintain the Task to Story (child to parent) relationship.  Similarly Epic to Story relationship.  Do I have to do this as a multistep process?  Meaning, I need to first import the epics into Jira so I have the parent epic links.  Then update CSV of stories and map it to the newly generated Jira epic ids and then import the stories.  Then repeat this for tasks so I an migrate the tasks as sub tasks to stories created in Jira?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Janany Satkunam 

Into what type of Space (project) in Jira Cloud are you importing the data?

- Business, Software, or Service

- Team-managed or Company-managed

Please provide the details of the Jira fields to which you mapped the columns shown in your spreadsheet image.

Do the Work Item Type values you show in your image correspond to Work Item Types that exist in the Cloud instance, and exist in the Space into which you are importing your data?

The natively created Task type and Story type exist at the same hierarchy level by default in Jira Cloud. You cannot make one the parent (or child) of the other because they are considered "sibling" types. If you want to create an item that is a child of the Story you will have to specify an item type know to Jira that is valid and can actually be a child of a Story according to the Work Type Hierarchy. By default that would be a "subtask". The exact name depends on the Space type into which you are importing.

[Janany Satkunam]

Hi Trudy,

Software space and Company managed.
Please see attached image for the mapping.  I am trying to do this as a simple test import.  All work Item types do exist in my Cloud instance as well as the space.   And I am mapping Task in CSV to sub-task in my mapping screen.  

[Trudy Claspill]

Generally when I'm doing a CSV import I don't use the Map Field Value option. For most fields it is unnecessary. The only time I find it to be necessary is when the field is a selection list and the values in my CSV don't match the available values in Jira.

Can you try again and remove the check marks for Map Field Value except where you actually need to map value (i.e. Task > Sub-task)?

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @Janany Satkunam 

No, you do not need to do that in 3 separate import steps.

For Jira Cloud, you can keep the parent-child mapping in one CSV by using your own Issue ID values and a Parent column in the same file.

So for your mapping:

Feature -> Epic

Story/Bug -> child of that Epic

Task -> Sub-task under the Story/Bug

The important part is to use the External system import CSV path, not the simple CSV issue creation flow.

Only one thing to keep in mind: the actual import needs Jira admin access, and your profile shows Product Admin, so you may need your Jira admin to run it.

keep-issue-parent-child-mapping-during-csv-import-to-jira-cloud 

[Janany Satkunam]

Hi @Arkadiusz Wroblewski Thanks for the quick response.  I am able to do import test.  SO I created a CSV sample but still running into errors.  I think there are issues with mapping.  In your link you provided, they  say 

• Issue id → Issue id

• Issue key → Issue Key

• issue type → Issue Type
  
  But in Cloud these got changed right?  See my sample CSV image.  ID is coming from source.  HOw should I map these in the Jira import screen?
  I see Work type, Work item Id to which I can map.  
  WHen I tried doing this (without mapping the ID field to anything) 
  I get errors like the below:

  Import completed with 3 errors:

  • Error importing work item [externalId='2', summary='XXX']: Unable to create issue: XXX
  • Unable to link issue from 3 to 2 with link named 'sub-task-link': Cannot find imported issue key for external id '2'
  • Destination issue not found
  Cannot add value [ TEST-14229 ] to CustomField Epic Link in Work item with summary 'XXX'. Probably value was in incorrect format