Tips for performing a successful data migration (export->import)

Table of Contents:

1. Solutions and Migration Options (Export -> Import) 
2. Generic Migration Guide:
    -Users
    -Board Design 
    -Cards 
    -Excel File Format
    -Limitations 
3. Leankit Migration Capabilities

In this article, you will find instructions on how to migrate from the most common solutions that you currently have in place to Kanbanize. 

1. Solutions and Migration Options (Export -> Import) 

• Trello - Follow the link to our dedicated article on the Trello Import via our out of the box integration. One of the main features of our integration is the ability to import all existing cards you have from Trello.
  
  
• Leankit - This is the most advanced import capability that we have developed. Please, check the details in the related paragraph below. We recommend you to get in touch with our Support / DevOps team for the data migration (export/import), because of the complexity of the import. 
  For more information, please check p.3 below. 
  
  
• Jira - Because of the highly customizable use-cases and scenarios, the best option to import data from Jira is via Excel. A sample pattern is explained in the Generic Migration guide bellow (p.2).
  
  
• Asana, Azure DevOps, Basecamp, Monday, MS Planner, .. - All these solutions support the generic export of your work items into CSV, Excel format. Using our Generic Migration guide (p.2) along with a few preparation steps,  you should be ready to switch and continue working in Kanbanize, getting value from all the extra benefits we offer and applying the most efficient Kanban method to your workflow. 
  
  
• Google Sheets - As an alternative of MS Excel, we have the ability to import data from Google Sheets. You still need to get prepare and have a look at the generic import guide before using the Google Add-on. See the dedicated article on how to use this approach. 
  

2. Generic Migration Guide

Content Steps: 

  1. Manage Users: invited and assigned them with the correct usernames and roles
  2. Board Design: prepare your workflows to  matches the states of your existing ones
  3. Card Properties: set Kanbanize Types, Tags and Custom Fields
  4. Excel format: prepare the content to match the right columns and values
  5. Known Limitations: See what cannot be imported, check for workarounds

The workflows in your current solution are most probably customized to meet the needs of your teams. We recommend you to inspect each step of your migration and do it a couple of times until you proceed with the import. Still, there are some default values that could be easily mapped.  Here are the examples: 

1. Users 
   

   To keep your already existing tasks from the current solution in place, being assigned to the right people in Kanbanize after the import you need to first:
   
   
   • Invite the users, by their emails. 
     
     
   • Assign the users to your new board. Make sure the right security roles/permissions are applied. 
     
     
   • Use the user names (NOT emails) during import/export, after inviting the users. From the Admin Menu, you need to make sure and edit their usernames to match the ones in your existing solution and those are available in the export data. 
     For example, Jira has usernames, but Azure Dev Ops uses First and Last Name, so rename the Kanbanize usernames to match the First and Last names in your existing solution. 
     Note: Use unique names for every user. 
     
     

2. Board Design 
   

   The most common Tasks in your existing solution should have a System property to identify the State of your work item like status in Jira Issues,  sections in Asana, state in Azure DevOps, etc.
   The values might be different but should be something like New, To Do, In Progress, Done, Completed, Finished. Most probably you have more sophisticated workflows and statuses, so before importing into Kanbanize, design the board and name the columns exactly as the states you have now. 
   For example, /for the default settings/ when importing from Jira you need to rename just the "Requested" column in Kanbanize as "To Do". The rest matches exactly.  
   
   

3. Cards 
   

   Before the actual import you have to make sure that the Card in Kanbanize has all-analog fields and system values (you want to import) and that they match the values of your existing solution: 
   
   
   • Card Types: from the top Admin / Settings panel in Kanbanize, manage your types to match the ones you have. These could be called Work Item Type,  Issue Type, etc.. If such a field is not available, then just ignore it. 
     
     
   • Tags: from the same Admin / Settings panel prepare the tags to match the ones used in your existing solution. These could also be called: Labels, Tokens, etc. 
     
     
   • Custom Fields: Form the Admin / Settings or from the board sidebar, you can add custom fields with meta or additional information you have in your existing work items.
     Like: Budget, PO Number, Risk, etc. This could be of different value types, like dropdown, number, text, etc. Make sure to define them matching the values you currently have. 
     
     

4. Excel File Format
   

   The exported file from your existing solution could be in a CSV format or should have different column names and values, so there might be some pre-processing actions expected to get it properly imported into your Kanbanize Board.
   
   
   • File format: convert your data into xls or xlsx file and make sure you have only one sheet in your excel. 
     
     
   • First Row Names: need to be properly formatted so that your data can be matched to the cards' fields in Kanbanize. Here are the descriptive names (column headers) to the columns matching the following card fields: 'Title', 'Description', 'Card ID', 'Custom Card ID', 'Priority', 'Assignee', 'Color', 'Size', 'Tags', 'Deadline', 'Ext link', 'External link', 'Template', 'Type', 'Type name', 'Column', 'Column name', 'Lane', 'Lane name', 'Comment', 'Parent', 'Creation date', 'Board name', 'Board ID', 'Workflow name', 'Links', 'Planned Start', 'Planned End', 'Start Date', 'End Date'. 
     
     IMPORTANT:  Only the field “Title” is mandatory, all other fields are optional.
     
     
   • Values: There are some fixed values in Kanbanize, so you might need to search and replace your excel values to match the ones expected by Kanbanize. For example:
     
     
     • Priority:   Your solution might have a different Name, for example: "Severity" along with different values. You need to search and replace them to be one of the following four values: [Low, Average, High, Critical]
       
       
     • Color: Our clients very often have custom company brand colors defined by their Marketing teams, that's why our color values are HEX format, for example: 
       Green: 34A97B, Red: CC1A33, Grey: 666666, Blue: 067DB7, etc. 
       Note: You can see these from the card color value once selected. 
       
       
     • Due date, Creation date, Start Date, End Date: Make sure all date fields are either of type Date in your excel and recognized as such, or in the format 2020-02-20 (YYYY-MM-DD) 
       Note: If you manage to extract from your system Creation, Start and End dates of your work items, after the import this historical data could be used by our analytics and widgets for Kanban metrics and reporting.  
       
       

5. Limitations 

   Using Excel, you should be able to migrate work items with their top values and states and main completion dates. That would be enough to continue with your activities and measure your throughput and cycle times before and from now on. There will be missing information, such as analytical specific data like transitions between custom states of your previous workflow, history logs and meta information of your work items, attachments, subtasks, comments and probably archived projects could not be migrated. For traceability purposes, we suggest that you export as much data as possible form your existing solution and store it for future offline references upon demand. 
   
   

3. Leankit Migration Capabilities

Our DevOps team has a facility in place using the APIs of both systems that could migrate almost everything related to a Board in Leankit to a Board in Kanbanize. 

1. Board Design 
   There is almost 1:1 mapping from a Leankit Board to the Kanbanize Board. This could be done automatically with some small limitations on very complex boards with multiple nested lanes in Leankit. Still we suggest that you review and change the board design after that in Kanbanize using the capabilities we offer: 
   
   - create multiple workflows in one board
   - enable Initiatives workflow and Timeline workflow, where you can implement different hierarchy levels to best fit your breakdown structure. 
   
   
2. Users 
   The users (emails, user names, roles, permissions), etc. are migrated automatically. The only thing left is for them to log in to Kanbanize, requesting a reset of their password. As we have more enhanced roles and privileges, after the migration it would be wise to review and adjust the permissions for your users. 
   
   
3. Cards
   All card properties such as deadlines, priority, color, types, labels, etc. will be migrated and adjusted to the Kanbanize ones. If there are custom fields, those will be created and applied as well, copying all values from Leankit to Kanbanize. The cards and sub-tasks will be assigned to the same corresponding users as well. 
   
   
4. History and Comments 
   All comments will be available inside the cards in Kanbanize with the Author of the comment and the exact time in the past when the comment was added. All modifications of properties, movements, and activities are also available inside the history log tab for auditing and tracking. 
   
   
5. Links and Positions
   All existing links between cards in Leankit will be associated accordingly in Kanbanize and correct positioning of the cards will be in place. 
   Note: We have several types of links Child, Parent, and Relative. The system will try to associate these accordingly. As we have enhanced capabilities of copying and keeping in sync fields between linked cards, you might reconsider adopting your workflows and use business rules automation.
    
6. Analytics
   As all events and transitions are migrated, the analytics module is able to give you real data information in all charts of the analytics module. 
   Note: We have 4 main sections that are used in Kanbanize. Having the right columns located in the right sections (Backlog, Requested, In progress and Done) is crucial to get proper metrics from the analytics. From Edit Workflow you are able to move columns in the different sections, this will also move the historical (analytical) data as well for further analysis.

As the Leankit data migration requires special scripts to be executed, read API access to your existing account, and some serious preparation from our side, please get in touch with us via the support team and we'll assist you with the migration details and next steps. 

In all cases, if you find some technical issue, don't find the information at this knowledgebase or have any struggle to import your data, just contact our support team and we'll get back to you right away.