Migrate from Kanbanize to JIRA

Question

Hello,

I am working for a company that is undergoing a consolidation effort to bring the management of all projects into a single platform, that is JIRA. As a result we are facing the challenge of migrating from various tools we are using at the moment for the different projects, that, desirably, also includes transferring all of the past history. The scenario that is relevant for me is switching from Kanbanize (kanbanize.com) to JIRA.

We are primarily looking at solutions that would not require dedicated programming and involvement of corresponding APIs, i.e., via widely used software (e.g., Excel) or any plugins (may be commercial as well). Has anyone had a similar challenge in the past, or have any suggestions in general?

Internet absolutely did not prove helpful with this one. In fact, trying to Google anything about migration TO JIRA actually yielded more results containing information about migration FROM JIRA to to other tools. It does look like competition puts way more emphasis on luring clients away from Atlassian, than the other way around :)  It also seems to be the first time something like this is asked in this community. Hopefully someone can provide at least some guidance.

Best regards,

Andrius

Matt O_Brien_xsqca3 · Answer

Hi Andrius,

Not so much an answer here as another question.

I find myself in similar position to yourself where my organisation are moving from Kanbanize into Jira and we are experience the same challenges around moving and retaining all the data that we need. I was wondering how this progressed for you and if you found any decent solutions?

Kind regards,

Matt

Jack Brickey · Answer

Hi Andrius, welcome to the Community. It seems your primary question (?) has to do with migrating from Kanbanize. TBH, I have never heard of the tool, not that I am in all project management tools by any means. My point is, you are correct that there does not appear to be any specific posts in the Community about migrating to Jira from Kanbanize that my brief search yielded. With that said, the defacto answer for "how to migrate to Jira from product-xxx" is to use CSV import which I have used for various tools, e.g. excel, bugzilla, spiceworks, etc. While not glamorous and not perfect in all aspects, e.g. attachments, it is effective. In my opinion and experience the most important aspect of migrating to a new platform is the future and the past comes secondary. I keep instances of the old tools around w/ 1-2 licenses for a period of time if a user needs to reference any data that did not get imported. I also use a custom field "old ticket system" to import the previous ticket ID for quick reference. It is also worth mentioning that if you have a sizable project here then you might consider reaching out to a local Atlassian Partner to see if they can assist. Generally speaking their experience can be invaluable in these efforts.

Finally, if your team seems to really love Kanbanize maybe this addon for Jira would help w/ the transition - cards-plugin-for-jira . I have zero experience with this tool, just found searching the Marketplace for addons that might assist w/ migration, for which there were none. Finally, finally... you might go to https://support.atlassian.com/  and use the search for "importing" etc. as there are many articles that speak to various import challenges, e.g. attachments, links, etc.