Convert software project to service management project

[Tim Full]

I'm coming from a very old level of Jira (V4.3.1) which didn't have a service management option, so we'd built out an ability to track activity with customers via the email component.  Customers are defined as unlicensed users who could not directly access the instance other than via email notifications and replies.  The customers were defined as the reporter of the issue.

I'm interested in migrating my project to Jira Service Management in the cloud which would provide the ability for customers to access their ticket histories, create new tickets and directly interact with product.

I have worked out the necessary steps to convert/migrate the data from V4 to V8 on-prem to prep it for migration to the cloud.  What I'm trying to identify is the best route to get it from a V8 software project to a cloud Service Management project.

Is it best to convert the project on-prem to a Service Management project, then move it to the cloud, or migrate it as a software project to the cloud, then change the type?  Is either approach practical?  Since the customer userid is currently defined in the issue as the reporter, will I be able configure the customers in the customer group to an id in Service Management and keep the relationship between the customer and the issue after migration?

[Mark Segall]

Hi @Tim Full 

Converting to JSM is a migration effort of its own right as you need to create a new project and move issues.  I would recommend waiting until you're on Cloud because it has a more simplified UI for configuring the project. So, you'll end up saving a few clicks here and there by waiting until you're on cloud.