We’re excited to share how our approach works in both IT and non-IT contexts. We offer demonstrations that spotlight practical ways to tackle vital tasks, from highly technical environments to everyday operational scenarios. This blog focuses on a central topic many teams face: monitoring and adjusting migration initiatives on the cloud. By tapping into Jira dashboards, it’s possible to keep timelines and budgets under control, all while steering your teams toward smooth progress.

Whether you’re part of a specialized development lineup or handling administrative tasks for a non-technical team, Jira can be shaped to match your needs. The practices below can help everyone, so feel free to consider how these ideas might apply to your own corner of the working world. And if you’ve experimented with dashboards in your own way, please share your experiences in the comments—your input may inspire others!

Why Cloud Migration Oversight Matters

Cloud migration isn’t just about switching servers or hosting environments. It often involves:

• Shifting applications, data, and services to a new infrastructure
• Coordinating multiple stakeholders, each with unique roles
• Keeping track of tasks that may include security checks, compliance, and team training

This kind of migration calls for structured oversight so that teams don’t lose sight of critical milestones. Lost data or overlooked tasks can set progress back, causing extra expenses and possible disruptions for end-users. A robust tracking system provides a single point of reference that clarifies responsibilities, deadlines, and budget considerations.

Jira Dashboards: A Foundation for Visibility

Jira Software is well-known for issue tracking and agile workflows, but its dashboards bring an extra level of organization. When you build a custom dashboard, you can gather relevant information in one place, allowing you to:

• Check the status of tasks at a glance
• Compare estimated vs. actual time spent
• Quickly gauge overall project health

Visuals like graphs and charts can highlight priority items, while lists provide precise details about tasks and subtasks. This gives team leads and project managers the context they need to see what’s on track and what may require additional attention.

Step 1: Map Your Migration Phases

Before configuring a dashboard, it’s helpful to break down the migration project into distinct phases. For instance, you might include:

• Assessment: Evaluating current on-premise or existing infrastructure
• Planning: Building timelines, budgeting, and resource allocation
• Migration Execution: Moving data, running tests, and verifying results
• Stabilization: Monitoring and addressing any emerging issues post-migration

Once you have these phases set, create Jira issue types or epic labels to match them. This categorization ensures that your dashboard can filter and display tasks by phase, giving you an instant view of progress and outstanding items in each category.

Step 2: Build Custom Dashboards for Each Phase

Instead of having a single dashboard for everything, consider multiple dashboards—one per phase—to keep information well-organized. Here’s how you might do it:

• Assessment Dashboard: Show tasks related to current infrastructure analysis. Include fields for security checks, cost projections, and resource availability.
• Planning Dashboard: Highlight start dates, end dates, associated budgets, and any dependencies for upcoming tasks. Gantt-style charts or timeline gadgets can help.
• Migration Execution Dashboard: Display real-time status of tasks in progress, plus any testing or verification steps. Show blocks, if any, that need resolution.
• Stabilization Dashboard: Include post-migration issues, feedback forms from end-users, and performance metrics that confirm the move was successful.

Multiple dashboards let you quickly switch views, so each team lead can focus on the tasks pertinent to their responsibilities.

Step 3: Add Gadgets for Time and Budget Tracking

One of Jira’s strengths is the variety of gadgets you can include on a dashboard. Gadgets such as “Issue Statistics,” “Created vs. Resolved Chart,” and “Road Map” can show tasks that are trailing or exceeding estimates. They help you see if certain teams are overloaded or if certain tasks consistently overshoot the allocated hours.

Budget tracking might not be a default part of Jira, but you can integrate add-ons or custom fields for cost elements. If you set up custom fields for estimated costs, your dashboard can reflect the projected vs. actual spending, allowing you to keep a close watch on finances.

Step 4: Facilitate Team Communication with Commenting and Notifications

Jira encourages conversation around tasks, which reduces scattered messages across different platforms. By enabling notifications, team members can get alerted whenever a task changes status, or when they’re tagged in a comment. For cloud migration in particular, this ensures:

• Immediate updates if a deployment hits a snag
• Quick sign-off on tasks that need management approval
• Direct threads of communication tied to specific tasks

Regular updates on Jira boards and dashboards keep the entire group synchronized without excessive emails or status meetings. This style of collaboration can help you see the entire workflow from a single vantage point.

Step 5: Track QA and Testing

Cloud migration usually requires thorough testing—everything from confirming that data arrived intact to verifying that applications run as intended in the new setting. Jira dashboards can track:

• Test environment readiness
• Bug reports
• QA feedback
• Sign-offs from specialized teams

By linking test cases to user stories or tasks, you can see if testing is fully wrapped up before you proceed. This reduces guesswork and lowers the chances of surprises after going live.

Step 6: Keep an Eye on Security Measures

Security is vital when dealing with any migration, since data might be exposed to new risks. A dedicated section in Jira can catalog items like access control, encryption checks, and compliance requirements. You can add a security-focused gadget on your dashboard, showing which tasks are in review or pending. That way, no crucial steps slip by.

For more on security and compliance, you might explore resources on Atlassian’s ITSM page. While ITSM covers a broad range of processes, many of the same principles apply to cloud migration activities, particularly around process oversight and accountability.

Step 7: Establish Meaningful Metrics

Metrics are useful only if they genuinely reflect project health. While velocity charts and burndown charts are popular for agile teams, you might also benefit from:

• Cycle Time: How long it takes from opening a task to closing it
• Lead Time: The total time from request to completion
• Open Tasks by Priority: A quick snapshot of how many tasks fall under each priority
• Budget vs. Actual Expenditure (via plugins or custom scripts)

Focus on data that best reveals the status of your migration. If an important metric is missing, a custom integration or add-on may fill the gap.

Step 8: Automate Where Possible

Although we’re not using certain buzzwords, automation is still a real option within Jira. Rules can transition issues to specific states, assign tasks based on certain triggers, or send notifications when conditions are met. For a cloud migration project, setting up these rules can help:

• Move tasks to “Ready for Testing” when code merges are completed
• Alert security teams if tasks with a “Security” label move to “In Progress”
• Notify leadership when budget thresholds approach certain limits

Review the Jira automation guide to see available built-in capabilities. When used thoughtfully, automation can spare your teams from manual updates and keep the project from stalling due to overlooked steps.

Step 9: Balance Flexibility with Process

Jira is known for agile boards, but some cloud migration projects blend agile with more traditional project management. Dashboards should therefore reflect your actual process:

• If you have sprints or short cycles, display sprint burnup or burndown charts.
• If you have critical stage gates, use transitions that require sign-off.
• If your team follows a mix of agile and waterfall, create columns or status categories that reflect each step.

By mixing approaches thoughtfully, you cater to different groups within your organization. Some tasks might follow a continuous release schedule, while others hinge on a fixed deployment date.

Step 10: Invite Feedback and Iterate on Your Dashboards

Jira dashboards aren’t static. They should evolve as your project does. Once you set up a dashboard, ask your team:

• Is it missing any important gadgets or filters?
• Do we need a clearer way to see which tasks are priority?
• Are the visuals helping you understand the status quickly?

Collect input and refine your dashboards as the migration continues. Much like cloud technology itself, your approach to managing it should adapt to changing requirements.

Sharing Your Experience

Have you tried any specialized configurations in Jira that made a difference for cloud migration? Maybe you added a custom gadget or discovered a handy add-on that simplified the budget tracking aspect. Feel free to share your own insights, tips, or questions in the comment section. Your story might spark ideas for others who are on a similar path.

A lively discussion can help us all refine our techniques, whether we’re working with large enterprise deployments or smaller test environments.

Beyond Cloud Migration: Applying Jira to IT and Non-IT Use Cases

While this blog highlights cloud migration, the core concepts—dashboards, gadgets, automation, custom fields—can apply to any project that needs structured oversight. Organizations often use Jira to:

• Manage marketing campaigns
• Oversee creative pipelines
• Plan events or tradeshows
• Organize research and development timelines

By adapting these dashboards, you can replicate similar processes in departments beyond IT. This underscores the versatility of Jira as a platform for tasks that range from deeply technical to purely operational.

Collaborative Tools and Training

In addition to Jira, Atlassian offers various tools for collaboration and project tracking. Confluence, for instance, can serve as a wiki or knowledge base for hosting migration documentation, guidelines, or frequently asked questions. You can learn more about Atlassian’s overall project management offerings and see if those resources provide additional support for your teams.

If your group is new to these tools, training sessions or guided demos can be beneficial. Consider walking your team through the dashboards you create, explaining which gadgets matter most, and showing them how to filter tasks for a personalized view. The more comfortable everyone is with Jira, the smoother the project will run.

Sustaining Momentum Post-Migration

Once you’ve completed the move to a cloud-based environment, the story doesn’t end. It’s important to keep:

• Reviewing performance data to detect any irregularities
• Logging follow-up tasks for maintenance and updates
• Using dashboards to check for recurring issues that need attention

A well-structured Jira setup supports these ongoing responsibilities. Rather than shifting focus entirely to the next big project, you can keep tabs on how the new infrastructure is holding up.

The Human Side of Dashboards

A well-designed dashboard isn’t just about data. It’s also about making life a bit easier for those who use it. When your team can quickly see what needs doing, who’s assigned, and when each item is due, there’s less confusion. That level of clarity allows for better coordination and helps individuals spot any overlap or conflicts.

Many times, simply having data in a single place gives team members the confidence to move forward. Instead of searching emails, chat logs, or scattered spreadsheets, they can rely on Jira as a central source of truth. Projects flow more smoothly when people feel they have a handle on the tasks at hand and the outcomes expected.

Curious about how this could work for your unique organization? We provide demos for both IT and non-IT use cases to show firsthand how Jira dashboards can keep you organized. We are gold solution partners with Atlassian. Contact us at 📧 sales@clovity.com or visit 🌐 atlassian.clovity.com.

Explore how our approach may fit your scenarios, from large-scale migrations to everyday team coordination. We’re ready to help you bring these ideas to life!