Migrate Project from On-Prem Collection with Hosted XML Process Template to Cloud Organization with Inherited Process Template Model

[kiseta]

Hi,

We are currently evaluating the Azure DevOps Migration Tools to migrate an individual project from an on-premises Azure DevOps Server 2022 Collection to Azure DevOps Services (cloud).

The source project uses a highly customized hosted XML process template (based on Agile), which we need to recreate or import into the target Azure DevOps Services organization as an inherited process template. This step is crucial because Azure DevOps Services only supports the inherited process model.

At this point, we are stuck with recreating the process template, as the number of customizations is too extensive to rebuild manually via the UI. We have also attempted to use process template export/import as described in Microsoft's documentation, but this approach appears to be limited to organizations that were migrated to Azure DevOps Services via the TFS Database Import Service using the official Microsoft Migration Process, which migrates an entire collection, rather than an individual project.

We are looking for any guidance or options on how to effectively handle this conversion of a hosted XML-based process into an inherited process for use in Azure DevOps Services. Specifically:

• Are there tools or approaches that can assist in automating the conversion from hosted XML to inherited process?
• Can the nkdAgility Process Tools extension assist with this conversion, or are there other best practices we can follow?

Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Links:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/settings/work/import-process/import-process?view=azure-devops

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/settings/work/upgrade-hosted-to-inherited?view=azure-devops

Thank you!

[MrHinsh]

My recommendation is to use the Azure DevOps Migration Service to import your entire collection into Azure DevOps Service and then use the out-of-the-box functionality to clone the process to an inherited model and then switch over! The only other option is as you say... manual.

If you only want a single project (I would fight quite strongly for the whole collection) you can split the collection to separate out that project and move it to Azure DevOps Services.

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You don't have to use the UI, you can build your process using the API's and iterate over the XML process export to build it. We can build it for you but it would be about 2-3 weeks work.

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