Migrate your goals from Microsoft Viva Goals to Atlassian Goals
With Microsoft announcing the retirement of Viva Goals, we’ve set up a way to migrate your goals into Atlassian to allow you to continue tracking your existing goals and minimize disruption.
Who is this guide for?
Organizations currently using Viva Goals that want to continue tracking goals/OKRs in Atlassian Goals.
Customers on Atlassian Cloud with Platform Experiences enabled (so you have access to Atlassian Goals).
Pre-migration checklist
Complete these actions prior to importing your goals from Viva Goals..
Decide which goals you want to migrate: Archive or exclude outdated items in Viva Goals first to minimize cleanup post-import.
Review the data mapping list and limitations: Some Viva Goals-specific fields and relationships may not be preserved during import. Review and make necessary updates in Viva Goals to minimize cleanup post-import.
Ensure users and teams are set up in your Atlassian site: This ensures the correct owners and teams are assigned to your goals during import. See the FAQ section below on how to do this.
Limitations and considerations
Goal deletion is not supported in Atlassian Goals: At this stage, Atlassian goals can be archived but not permanently removed. Include only the goals you want to continue using or reference before importing.
Owner matching: If a Viva Goals goal owner’s email doesn’t exist in your Atlassian site, the importer may assign the main contact as the owner. You can reassign after import.
Field coverage: Not all Viva Goals fields map 1:1. Only supported fields are imported; plan to manually reconcile any unsupported fields.
Outcome goal type: In Viva Goals, “Outcome” represents both Objective and Key Result. If you use Outcome for both, map one to a different type to ensure accurate hierarchy import.
Status update (aka Check-ins in Viva Goals): If a status update exceeds 256kb, the importer converts it to plain text, removing all formatting.
Public goals: Currently, all goals are visible to everyone in an organization. We are developing view and edit permissions for goals and projects and will add private goals in the future.
Single-parent alignment: Atlassian Goals does not support multiple parent goals. For any goals in Viva Goals aligned to multiple parents, one parent will be selected for mapping.
How to migrate your goals
Prepare your data
Clean up your goals in Viva Goals before exporting your data. Now is a great time to assess what data you would like to migrate to Atlassian Goals.
Export your Viva goals data
This can be found via Admin > Export Tab > JSON export format. See Microsoft’s documentation for further information.
Keep the exported files unmodified. Do not rename or edit the JSON; share them as-is with Atlassian Support in the following step.
Verify the email addresses
Check to make sure all the email addresses in the exported files from Viva Goals match the email addresses used by Atlassian accounts. You should also check that these Atlassian accounts have access to the Goals app in Atlassian Administration.
Import your data to Atlassian Goals
The Atlassian team will support you throughout the data import process.
Lodge a ticket with Atlassian Support, use the category Technical issues and bugs.
Select any product on the cloud site where you want your Goals migrated.
In the Summarize your issue field, enter “Viva Goals to Atlassian goals migration.”
Provide the following in your request to speed up the import:
Your Atlassian Cloud site URL and Cloud ID (where goals should be imported).
A main contact email address who has permission to create goals in that site.
Your exported Viva Goals JSON (attach the ZIP or JSON files).
After you submit the ticket, an Atlassian Support engineer will guide you through validation and scheduling of the import.
Get started with Atlassian Goals
Now that your goals have made it to Atlassian, you and your team are ready to get started! You can learn more about Atlassian Goals through our documentation, Atlassian University or join our upcoming webinar to learn how to drive goal-aligned work.
What information gets migrated?
Some Viva-specific fields and relationships may not be preserved during import. We recommend reviewing imported goals afterwards and making adjustments as needed.
Core set
Microsoft Viva Goals field | Atlassian Goals field | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Title | Goal name |
| 2 | Type | Goal type |
| 3 | Owner | Owner |
| 4 | Team | Teams |
| 5 | Time period | Stored as a tag Tags enable users to filter and create views based on a time period. |
| 6 | Start date | Start date |
| 7 | End date | Target date |
| 8 | Tags | Tags |
| 9 | Progress | Progress % |
| 10 | Status | Status
|
| 11 | Metric name | Metric name |
| 12 | Metric unit | Measurement
|
| 13 | Start | Start value for this goal |
| 14 | Target | Target value for this goal |
| 15 | Parent | Parent goal No support for multiple parents. Additional parents to be stored in a custom field. |
| 16 | Child | Sub-goals |
| 17 | Score | Goal score |
| 18 | Check-ins | Latest update Atlassian Goals has a 280 char limit to drive engaging updates, anything that exceeds will be stored in “More details” section on an update. |
Additional fields
Microsoft Viva Goals field | Atlassian Goals field | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Creator (Goal, Comments) | Creator (Stored as custom field) |
| 2 | Owner | Owner (first owner) Additional owners will be added to a custom field |
| 3 | Alignment | Not supported |
| 4 | Contributions | Not supported Weighting is equal by default. |
| 5 | Delegated to | Delegated to (custom field) |
| 6 | Permissions | Not supported currently. We do not import goals that have permissions set. Only goals that are public to everyone will be imported. All goals will be open by default, Edit Permissions to be delivered in Q2 FY26 (calendar year). |
| 7 | Description | Description > About |
| 8 | Progress configuration | How will you track progress? |
| 9 | Status configuration | Not supported |
| 10 | Data source | Not supported |
| 11 | Target type | Not supported |
| 12 | Phased targets | Not supported |
| 13 | Risk threshold You can optionally add a risk threshold value to control metrics, which specifies above or below which values you'll address or accept risks. You can configure:
| Not supported |
| 14 | Check-in owners | Not supported |
| 15 | Goal type
| Unsupported (custom field) |
| 16 | Created at
| Created |
| 17 | Last Check-in | Not supported No explicit field for “last check-in”. Dates for each check-in will be imported. |
| 18 | Initiative | Not supported We highly recommend creating your Viva Initiatives as Atlassian Projects. |
| 19 | Tasks | Not supported |
FAQs
How do I set up my users in Atlassian?
Go to Atlassian Administration for your organization.
In the “Users” section, verify your goal owners have been added. If any user is missing, you can:
Sync with Identity Provider
OR click “Invite users” and enter their email addresses to add them
How do I set up my teams in Atlassian?
Go to Atlassian Administration for your organization.
In the teams directory, ensure all teams that will be associated with a Goal has been created. If any team is missing, you can create teams in a few ways depending on your needs:
Sync via Identity Provider (IdP)
Sync via Workday
OR click “Create team” manually and add the relevant members
Can I migrate from Microsoft Viva myself?
Not yet. The process is facilitated by Atlassian Support to ensure correctness and data safety during the transition. To request migration support:
Lodge a ticket with Atlassian Support, use the category “Technical issues and bugs”
Select any product on the cloud site where you want your Goals migrated.
In the Summarize your issue field, enter “Viva goals migration.”
Provide the following in your request to speed up the import:
Your Atlassian Cloud site URL and Cloud ID (where goals should be imported).
A main contact email address who has permission to create goals in that site.
Your exported Viva JSON (attach the ZIP or JSON files).
After you submit the ticket, an Atlassian Support engineer will guide you through validation and scheduling of the import.
Will my OKRs be preserved?
Objective and Key result concepts are supported, but some metadata may require manual adjustment post-import. We recommend validating a pilot set first if you have complex hierarchies.
How long does it take?
Most small imports are complete within a few business days from when we receive your files and confirm details. Larger datasets may take longer depending on validation and review.
Is there a cutoff date for requesting a migration?
Microsoft has announced that Viva Goals will be retired on December 31, 2025 . We recommend initiating your migration well in advance. Open a support ticket as soon as you have your export ready.
Troubleshooting
The migration has started but I can’t see my goals yet
Large datasets can take time to appear. Wait for the completion confirmation from Support. If it’s been more than 24 hours after confirmation, reply to your ticket with examples (goal titles or IDs).
Some goals are missing owners
Confirm the user exists in your Atlassian site with the same email as in Viva. If not, add the user and reassign the goal owner.
The structure or hierarchy of my goals looks different
Compare a few representative goals against your Viva export to identify pattern differences. Share those examples in your support ticket so we can advise on remediation.
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