Migrate from UpWave to Microsoft Project

Each UpWave Board maps to a Microsoft Project file or a Project Online project site. The board name becomes the project name. We preserve the board description and creation date as project summary fields in the destination. If multiple boards share a Team, we group them into a Project Site or use the SharePoint Project Web App (PWA) enterprise project structure when the destination is Project Online or Project Server.

UpWave Columns map to summary tasks (or phase rows) in Microsoft Project that group related cards. The column name becomes the summary task name, and we use outline indentation to show that cards belong to that phase. If the destination is Project Plan 3 (web), we create Task Groups via the Planner/PWA structure. Columns with WIP limits or color-coding are preserved as custom fields in the destination project.

UpWave Cards map directly to Microsoft Project Tasks. The card title becomes Task Name, due date becomes Finish Date, completed date becomes Actual Finish Date, and the card color becomes a custom Text field or Enterprise Custom Field in Project. We infer Start Date from the card creation date or use a Project constraint (As Soon As Possible) if no start date exists in UpWave.

UpWave subtasks nested under a card become child tasks in the Project outline. We flatten the hierarchy by creating a summary task for the parent card and inserting each subtask as a child row with outline level incremented. If subtasks have their own due dates or estimates, those map to the child task's Finish Date and Work field respectively. Deep nesting (more than three levels) is flagged during scoping for manual review.

UpWave Assignees (comma-separated names or emails per card) are split into individual records and resolved against the Microsoft Project Resource Sheet. We match by email where available, creating a Resource record with the name and email for each unique assignee. Resource hours are derived from the card's estimate field if time tracking was enabled on the board. Assignments are created on the task row using the Unit value of 1.0 for single-assignee cards.

UpWave due dates export in the exporter's timezone. We normalize to UTC and set the Microsoft Project Task Finish date. If a card is marked completed with a completed date, we set Actual Finish to the completed date and mark the task percent complete at 100 percent. Tasks with no due date receive a Project constraint of As Soon As Possible unless a creation date provides a reasonable start.

UpWave estimate fields export only when time tracking is enabled on that board. We map the estimate value (in hours or days as configured in UpWave) to the Task Work field in Microsoft Project. If UpWave uses story points, we flag this during scoping and the customer chooses whether to carry story points as a custom field or convert to hours using a team-defined ratio.

UpWave time-spent fields migrate to the Task Actual Work field in Microsoft Project. This allows the destination project to show planned vs. actual work and supports earned value analysis if the customer enables Project Professional or Project Online cost tracking. We flag any card where time tracking was not enabled on the source board because no actual work data exists to migrate.

UpWave card colors do not have a native Microsoft Project equivalent. We map colors to a custom Text field or Flag field on the Task, encoding the color name or hex value for reference. If the customer uses color as a priority or status indicator, we discuss during scoping whether to map color to a priority custom field instead.

UpWave card comments migrate as task notes in Microsoft Project. We concatenate all comments per card into the Task Notes field, preserving the commenter name and timestamp inline. Rich text in UpWave comments is simplified to plain text in Project Notes because Microsoft Project's notes field does not support full HTML rendering. Comments that exceed the notes field length are truncated with a flag in the migration report.