Project Management migration
Field-level mapping, validation, and rollback between Backlog and monday Work Management. We move data and schema; workflows are rebuilt natively in monday Work Management.
Backlog
Source
monday Work Management
Destination
Compatibility
13 of 14
objects map 1:1 between Backlog and monday Work Management.
Complexity
BStandard
Timeline
3-5 weeks
Overview
Moving from Backlog to monday.com restructures how work is organized. Backlog uses a Project-centric model where Issues, Wikis, Git repositories, and Milestones live inside Projects; monday.com uses Workspaces containing Boards, where Items live inside Groups and columns define status. We design the Workspace-Board mapping during scoping, decompose Backlog Issues into monday.com Items with subitems for any Backlog Subtasks, and preserve Milestone dates as Timeline start and end columns. Backlog's tier-gated Custom Fields (available only on Premium and Enterprise) require detection during discovery and conditional mapping. Backlog Wikis, Git repository references, and Burndown data migrate as written documentation for the customer to rebuild in monday.com Docs and Chart widgets. We do not migrate Backlog's notification settings, watch lists, or user-specific preferences as these are not portable between systems.
Every standard and custom field arrives verified.
AI proposes the map; you confirm before any record moves.
Parent–child, lookups, and ownership stay linked.
Calls, emails, meetings — with original timestamps.
Documents, uploads, and inline notes move with the record.
Why teams make this switch
Leaving
What's pushing teams away
Choosing
What's pulling them in
Object mapping
Each row shows how a Backlog object lands in monday Work Management, including any object-level transformations, lookup resolution, or schema-design dependencies.
Typical mapping — final map is confirmed during the sample migration step.
Backlog
Project
monday Work Management
Board (within Workspace)
1:1Backlog Projects map 1:1 to monday.com Boards. We create one Workspace per Backlog space (or group related Projects into a single Workspace if the source account has fewer than 5 Projects to avoid workspace sprawl). Project descriptions migrate as the Board description. Project-level settings (notification preferences, issue number sequence) do not have a direct monday.com equivalent and are documented for the admin to reconfigure.
Backlog
Issue
monday Work Management
Item
1:1Backlog Issues map 1:1 to monday.com Items. Issue title becomes Item name. Issue description (full HTML or markdown) migrates to a monday.com Text column. Issue status (Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed) maps to Status column values. Priority maps to a Priority column or dropdown. We preserve the issue created date as a Date column and updated date as a Last Updated column.
Backlog
Subtask
monday Work Management
Subitem
1:1Backlog Subtasks (available from Starter tier onward) map to monday.com Subitems on the parent Item. The parent-child relationship is maintained via monday.com's native Subitem structure. Subtask title, status, assignee, and due date migrate. Subtask custom fields (if Premium-tier) map to Subitem column equivalents.
Backlog
Milestone (Version)
monday Work Management
Timeline Column + Group label
lossyBacklog Milestones (called Versions in Backlog's UI) with planned completion dates map to monday.com Timeline columns using start_date and target_date. We set the Timeline start to the Project start date or Issue earliest start date, and the end to the Milestone planned completion date. Milestone-issue associations migrate as Group labels or a dedicated Milestone column for filtering.
Backlog
Custom Field (Premium+)
monday Work Management
Column (typed)
1:1Custom Fields exist only on Backlog Premium and Enterprise plans. We detect field metadata via API during discovery. Backlog field types (text, number, date, radio, checkbox, multi-select, user, date+time) map to monday.com column equivalents (Text, Numbers, Date, Dropdown, Checkbox, Multiple person, Date with time). If the source account is on Free, Starter, or Standard, no custom field mapping occurs.
Backlog
Category
monday Work Management
Group or Dropdown Column
1:1Backlog Categories (project-level issue classification) map to monday.com Groups or a Dropdown column depending on whether the customer prefers items distributed into separate Groups (by status or type) or clustered in one Group with a Category dropdown for filtering.
Backlog
Label (Tag)
monday Work Management
Tag Column or Labels Column
1:1Backlog Tags are flat-form labels applied to Issues. We migrate tags as a Tag column in monday.com (Pro plan or above) or as a Labels column value. Tags with no equivalent in the destination are created as new tag values during migration. The full tag list is extracted before migration and a tag vocabulary is built for the destination.
Backlog
User
monday Work Management
User (Workspace member)
1:1Backlog users are matched by email address to monday.com Workspace members. We validate that each Backlog user has a corresponding monday.com account before migration. Inactive or disabled Backlog users are mapped to inactive monday.com users or flagged for admin review. Role mappings (Admin, Member, Viewer) translate to monday.com Workspace permission levels.
Backlog
Team
monday Work Management
Team (monday.com Teams feature)
1:1Backlog Teams (groups that can be assigned to Issues) map to monday.com Teams. Team memberships migrate as Team membership records. Teams without a direct monday.com equivalent are created as Groups or labeled columns and the mapping is documented for the admin to finalize.
Backlog
Wiki Page
monday Work Management
monday.com Doc (or External Document reference)
1:1Backlog Wiki pages live at the Project level and use Backlog's custom markup language. We extract page content and hierarchy and deliver it as a structured document map. Full conversion to monday.com Docs requires manual formatting in the destination because Backlog wiki markup is not directly translatable. Complex wiki macros and proprietary formatting are flagged in the handoff document.
Backlog
Attachment
monday Work Management
File Column or Item attachment
1:1Backlog file attachments on Issues and Wiki pages are extracted by URL reference and uploaded to monday.com as Item attachments. We confirm storage limits during discovery (100 MB Free, 1 GB Starter, 30 GB Standard, 100 GB Premium) and skip attachments that exceed the destination's storage allocation. Files that cannot be migrated are listed in the handoff document with download URLs for manual upload.
Backlog
Git Repository
monday Work Management
External reference (documentation only)
1:1Backlog Git and Subversion repositories are project-scoped. Source code and repository content do not migrate. We deliver a written inventory of every repository including name, URL, last commit date, and associated Issues with commit links. Pull request titles, reviewers, and status migrate as documentation entries. The customer links the repositories to monday.com Boards via a DevOps integration post-migration.
Backlog
Pull Request
monday Work Management
Item update or external reference
1:1Backlog pull requests linked to Git repositories carry titles, descriptions, reviewers, comments, and status. PR metadata migrates as structured entries in the handoff document rather than as native monday.com records, because monday.com has no native PR object. The customer links PRs to Items via third-party integrations (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) after migration.
Backlog
Burndown data
monday Work Management
Chart widget or external reporting
1:1Backlog Burndown charts are derived from issue completion rates against the sprint or milestone timeline. We do not migrate the chart visualization itself. The underlying issue completion events and sprint timeline data are preserved in the migrated Issue records so that the customer can rebuild burndown analysis in monday.com's Chart widget or export to a dedicated reporting tool.
| Backlog | monday Work Management | Compatibility | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project | Board (within Workspace)1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Issue | Item1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Subtask | Subitem1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Milestone (Version) | Timeline Column + Group labellossy | Fully supported | |
| Custom Field (Premium+) | Column (typed)1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Category | Group or Dropdown Column1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Label (Tag) | Tag Column or Labels Column1:1 | Fully supported | |
| User | User (Workspace member)1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Team | Team (monday.com Teams feature)1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Wiki Page | monday.com Doc (or External Document reference)1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Attachment | File Column or Item attachment1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Git Repository | External reference (documentation only)1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Pull Request | Item update or external reference1:1 | Fully supported | |
| Burndown data | Chart widget or external reporting1:1 | Fully supported |
Gotchas + challenges
Platform-specific issues from each side, plus the pair-specific challenges that don't show up on either platform's page on its own.
Backlog gotchas
Free and Starter tiers enforce hard project-count limits
Custom Fields are tier-gated — not available below Premium
CSV and Excel exports omit full issue descriptions
API rate limit numbers are not publicly documented
Wiki markup must be converted to destination format
monday Work Management gotchas
Subitems have no bulk export endpoint
API complexity budget constrains query depth
Daily call limits vary sharply across plan tiers
Automation and integration rules do not export via API
Saved views are not exposed via API
Pair-specific challenges
Migration approach
Discovery and plan-tier validation
We audit the source Backlog account across plan tier (Free/Starter/Standard/Premium/Enterprise), project count, issue volume, custom field metadata (if Premium+), subtask usage, milestone count, attachment volume, and wiki page count. We validate that the project count does not exceed the current plan tier limit and surface any plan-tier upgrades required before migration begins. We also extract the full tag vocabulary, category list, and user roster to prepare for destination schema design.
Workspace-Board strategy and schema design
We design the monday.com destination schema based on the project count and organizational structure. Accounts with fewer than 10 Backlog projects create one Workspace with a Board per project. Accounts with 10 or more projects group related Backlog projects into Workspaces and use Board naming conventions for project-level separation. We design the column schema: Status, Assignee, Priority, Due Date, Category, Tags, and any Premium-tier custom fields as typed columns. Subtasks are enabled at the Board level for any Board receiving Subtask-mapped Issues.
Sandbox migration and reconciliation
We run a full migration into a monday.com Sandbox Board using production-like data volume. The customer's project manager or admin spot-checks 25-50 random Items against the Backlog source, validates that column values match, confirms that subtask parent-child relationships are intact, and reviews the label and tag mapping. We correct any mapping errors before production migration begins. This step also validates the Workspace-Board structure and identifies any boards that need additional columns.
User reconciliation and Workspace provisioning
We extract every distinct Backlog user referenced on Issues, Subtasks, and team assignments and match by email address against the monday.com destination Workspace members. Any Backlog user without a matching monday.com account is held in a reconciliation queue. The customer's admin provisions missing monday.com accounts before migration resumes. Team memberships are mapped to monday.com Teams during this step.
Production migration in dependency order
We run production migration in record-dependency order: Workspace and Boards first (with column schema deployed), then Users and Teams, then Issues (with Subtasks as children), then Milestones (mapped to Timeline columns), then Labels and Tags, then Custom Fields (if Premium-tier), then Attachments (with storage-limit validation per file), then Wiki page inventory (as written handoff document). Each phase emits a row-count reconciliation report before the next phase begins.
Cutover, validation, and automation rebuild handoff
We freeze Backlog write access during cutover and run a final delta migration of any Issues modified during the migration window. We then enable monday.com as the system of record and deliver the Automation inventory document listing any Backlog automations (via Zapier or third-party integrations) that require rebuilding in monday.com's native automation builder. We do not rebuild automations as part of the migration scope. We support a one-week hypercare window for reconciliation issues raised by the customer's team.
Platform deep dives
Backlog
Source
Strengths
Weaknesses
monday Work Management
Destination
Strengths
Weaknesses
Complexity grading
Standard Project Management migration. 3 of 8 objects need a mapping; the rest are 1:1.
Overall complexity
Standard migration
Derived from compatibility, mapping clarity, API constraints, and data volume across Backlog and monday Work Management.
Object compatibility
3 of 8 objects need a mapping; the rest are 1:1.
Field mapping clarity
Field mapping is derived from defaults — final spec confirmed during the sample migration.
Timeline complexity
8-object category — typical timelines run 2–7 days end-to-end.
API constraints
Backlog: Per-minute, per-user limits that vary by plan (Free vs Paid) and by request type; exact numbers are dynamic and exposed via the GET /api/v2/rateLimit endpoint.
Data volume sensitivity
Backlog exposes a bulk API — large-volume migrations stream efficiently.
Estimator
Rule-based pricing — no per-record fees, no manual quotes. Migrations over 2M records are scoped individually.
Step 1
Pick a category, then your source and destination platforms.
Category
FAQ
Answers to the questions buyers ask most during Backlog to monday Work Management migration scoping. Not seeing yours? Book a call.
Walk through your Backlog to monday Work Management migration with a real engineer — 30 minutes, free, written quote within 24 hours.
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