Plan Your Tempo Migration

Detailed preparation and plans are crucial for a successful migration. A pre-migration plan also helps for the post-migration verification that everything is working as expected and you don't have any loose ends in your Cloud instance. In general, the migration guidelines provided by Atlassian provide the fundamental guidelines for your migration and cover a number of items that you need to consider in the migration process.

As you prepare for your Tempo migration, there are many things to consider and having a proper plan in place is the key to success. Planning for your Tempo migration should include the steps below:

1. Identify your stakeholders and gather resources. The stakeholders for migrating Tempo may differ significantly from those migrating Jira. You will likely need to check with team leads, project managers, financial officers and HR representatives. All of these may be touch points for Tempo. The sooner you keep everyone in the loop and include them in the process the easier the job will be for you in the end. Make sure you identify and get the resources you need!

2. Decide which Tempo data to migrate. Data migration is no small task, particularly for 3rd party apps like Tempo, as they are not seamlessly integrated into the Jira infrastructure as they are on Server or Data Center. The desired aim should always be to migrate everything to Cloud, but you need to evaluate if it is worth the effort. Many customers may decide to keep their Jira Server or Data Center instance for historical data and start on Cloud with a clean slate. That approach can help to remove constraints in developing your Cloud setup. For example, after your Data Center licenses have expired, you can still access the Tempo data there through your Jira database, wherever it is hosted, but not through Tempo's UI or APIs.

3. Explore and collect all Tempo functionality from the teams across your organization. Make sure you fully understand how your teams use Tempo - how they track their time, what reports they are running, which gadgets they use and what Tempo data they are relying on in their daily work. Do they use Tempo data in Confluence or other Jira tools? The devil is often in the details. Explore and understand the exact setup of the reports. Something that doesn’t appear to be important to you might be a deal-breaker for your users.

4. Explore and collect all Tempo functionality that is spread into other Atlassian tools and Jira itself. Tempo is a well-known add-on and its data is used and consumed by many other 3rd party apps for displaying time tracking or planning data. There are many 3rd party reporting tools that report and export Tempo data. Integrations to other 3rd party add-ons also include other Tempo entities like Accounts and Teams. These integrations might require a feasibility test and a separate migration effort.

5. Explore and collect information about existing integrations and automations that include/rely on Tempo-related entities. In many Jira instances, Tempo is also working under the hood and might not be on your radar when you investigate current Tempo functionality. Nearly every larger organization has integrations to external financial or HR applications. These integrations will require a redesign. For instance, the removal of the Tempo worklog servlet might have a larger impact. Consider also possible HR or Active Directory syncs between your external applications and Tempo Teams. Other automations or validations might include custom scripts that you are running on your Server instance using internal Java APIs. This functionality is not available on Cloud and you will need to rewrite your scripts to use the Tempo/Jira REST APIs instead.

6. Compare the existing functionality against the feature set or possibilities on Cloud. At this point you should have a comprehensive view of your existing functionality. With this extensive list you need to start the evaluation process on how to transform required functionality to your Cloud instance. The existing feature comparison might help you but, as mentioned earlier, some functionality is related to 3rd party apps or external applications and these areas will need to be investigated on an individual basis.

7. Decide what features/functionality you want to bring over to Cloud. Tempo has invested in Cloud technology heavily right from the beginning and it has been a focal point since 2017. This means that Tempo has a wide range of feature sets on Cloud and has always strived to have comparable feature sets for both environments. That includes a UI which is very similar on both Server/Data Center and Cloud, making the transition for your existing Tempo users painless. That said, not every single existing feature needs a migration. It is always good practice to iterate on existing workflows. Maybe the Cloud environment offers new possibilities or a different approach. For features that do not exist currently on Cloud, you might need to come up with a workaround or a new approach. Include your stakeholders from an early point. This will make things more hassle-free and help in acceptance and adoption. The Tempo team has a wide experience in this area and can help you to resolve constraints in your migration. Reach out - we are here to help!

8. Document your feature set for Jira Cloud. Once you have decided on your feature set that you need to have available on Cloud, make sure to document these and write down how you intend to test those features, including who will be responsible for the testing. Include as many resources as possible. It helps in the acceptance process and increases chances of a more rapid adoption.