Migrating to Jira Service Management (JSM) brings the benefit of powerful workflows, automation, and flexible service desk features. To ensure a smooth and efficient transition, having a detailed migration plan is crucial. With over 1000 migrations, we’ve fine-tuned this checklist to help you avoid common pitfalls and ensure that your migration is accurate and seamless.
Scope the Migration
Before diving into the migration, take a moment to define the scope thoroughly. This step is essential to avoid wasting time later in the process.
- Historical Data Range: Decide how far back your ticket history should go. Migrating too much data can result in unnecessary complications.
- Identify Users and Agents: Determine which active users and archived agents need to be included. This ensures accurate ticket ownership during migration.
- Choose Objects to Migrate: Define the objects you want to bring over, such as:
- Tickets (and related threads)
- Customers and companies (profiles and contact info)
- Custom fields, tags, and metadata
- Attachments
- Saved replies, workflows, and automation rules
- Decide What to Skip: Consider leaving behind old spam, irrelevant tickets, test cases, and outdated records to streamline the migration process.
- Map Legacy Data: Carefully map legacy ticket statuses, priorities, workflows, and team assignments to JSM’s model. This mapping will guide the actual data migration.
What Can Be Migrated Via API
Jira Service Management’s API enables you to migrate most of your essential data to the platform, preserving critical business context.
- Customers & Companies: Import customer data such as contact details, company affiliations, and metadata like customer tiers or support plan types.
- Tickets & Conversations: Each legacy ticket becomes a Jira Service Management issue. The migration should include:
- Original tickets (as issues)
- Messages, replies, internal comments
- Attachments and metadata (e.g., priority, ticket status, and customer satisfaction ratings)
- Custom Fields & Tags: If your previous system used custom fields or tags, these can be mapped to JSM's custom fields. Make sure to maintain metadata integrity by migrating relevant tags.
- Attachments: JSM supports importing attachments to ensure continuity in your customer support history.
What Still Needs to Be Configured in the JSM UI
While JSM provides a robust API, there are still several configurations that require manual intervention.
- Service Desk Setup: Configure your Service Desks, including email channels, queues, and team-specific workflows.
- User Roles & Permissions: Assign roles and permissions to your users (Admins, Agents, and Customers). Configure these through the JSM UI.
- Workflows: Set up your workflows manually in JSM, including SLAs, issue status transitions, and approval processes.
- Custom Fields & Ticket Types: If your system has custom ticket types or fields, ensure they are configured ahead of the migration.
- Queues and SLAs: Configure your service queues, SLA policies, and routing rules manually in the UI.
- Email and Notification Settings: Set up email notifications, including autoresponders and customer notifications, to ensure proper communication flow.
Pre-Migration Setup
This phase ensures that JSM is ready to accept migrated data and minimizes issues during the cutover.
- Create Projects & Service Desks: Set up your JSM projects and ensure they align with your organizational structure (e.g., support, HR, IT).
- Invite Users and Set Permissions: Add all active users and assign proper roles and permissions. Ensure agent IDs are correctly mapped to avoid orphaned tickets.
- Map Custom Fields: If your legacy system had custom fields, replicate them in JSM.
- Test Data Import: Run a small-scale import (e.g., 100 tickets) to ensure mapping and formatting are correct. Verify that issues, comments, and attachments appear as expected.
- Configure Email and Integration Settings: Set up email forwarding, email notifications, and any third-party integrations.
Migration Execution
At this stage, you’ll actually move the data into JSM.
- Import Customers and Companies: Start by importing customer and company profiles to ensure that ticket history links correctly.
- Migrate Tickets and Conversations: Each legacy ticket becomes an issue in JSM. Migrate all messages, replies, attachments, and statuses.
- Map Agent Assignments & Ownership: Ensure that each migrated ticket is assigned to the correct agent and team.
- Import Tags, Custom Fields & Metadata: Preserve any essential metadata like priority, ticket type, and custom fields.
- Run Delta Import: After the main migration, run a delta import for tickets created between your final export and the go-live date.
Post-Migration Checklist
Once data is loaded and agents begin working in JSM, verify everything for accuracy.
- Spot-check data to ensure that conversations, customer profiles, attachments, and tickets were migrated correctly. Verify timestamps, agent assignments, and status changes.
- Test inbound channels (email, chat, etc.) to ensure tickets are routed correctly and that agents can respond.
- Test workflows, SLAs, and routing rules to confirm that automation behaves as expected.
- Ensure agents are comfortable with JSM’s interface, workflows, and features like internal comments and issue transitions.
- After one week, schedule a review to collect agent feedback and address any issues that arise during day-to-day operations.
Common Pitfalls & Pro Tips
Ignoring Custom Fields & Tags: Ensure that all custom fields and tags are properly mapped before migrating. Missing fields can result in data loss.
Always test with varied data, including different ticket types and sources, to ensure full migration integrity.
Even experienced agents will need time to adjust to JSM’s system. Provide training to avoid post-migration confusion.
Keep workflows simple initially. Overcomplicating workflows can cause confusion and slow down the cutover process.
Don’t forget to run a delta import after the initial migration to capture any new tickets created before go-live.