AGC Migration Testing and Cutover: How to Protect Mission-Critical Work
Moving to Atlassian Government Cloud (AGC) is not complete when the data finishes migrating.
For government teams, the real measure of success is whether users can sign in, workflows still behave as expected, service requests continue to move, integrations remain available, permissions are correct and mission-critical work can continue without unnecessary disruption.
That is why testing and cutover planning deserve the same attention as migration architecture.
Atlassian’s migration approach for Data Center to AGC includes dedicated Test, Migrate and Post-migration phases. Testing includes migration validation and User Acceptance Testing, while the production migration is followed by further validation and post-migration work.
For agencies, these phases provide an opportunity to prove that the target environment is operational before teams depend on it.
Start Testing Before the Production Migration
A production migration should not be the first time an agency learns how its environment behaves in AGC.
A test migration gives teams a controlled opportunity to identify issues before the final cutover.
Atlassian recommends trial migrations because they can help organizations establish migration timing, validate data, perform User Acceptance Testing, prepare communications and identify issues before the live migration.
The test should answer practical questions such as:
- Did the expected projects and spaces migrate?
- Can users access the environment?
- Are workflows functioning correctly?
- Are permissions still appropriate?
- Are service requests behaving as expected?
- Are important integrations working?
- Are Marketplace app dependencies accounted for?
- Do users understand how to work in the target environment?
Testing should focus on how the agency operates, not simply whether data appears in AGC.
Identify Mission-Critical Work First
Not every project, workflow or knowledge space carries the same operational importance.
Before building the test plan, agencies should identify the work that cannot tolerate significant disruption.
This may include:
- Incident and service management workflows
- Operational support queues
- Approvals
- Program tracking
- Mission-support projects
- Change processes
- Knowledge repositories
- Security or compliance workflows
- Executive reporting
- External system integrations
These areas should receive deeper testing and clearer acceptance criteria.
For example, confirming that a Jira Service Management project migrated is not enough. Teams should submit a request, route it through the expected workflow, test approvals, verify notifications, confirm SLA behavior and check the information available to agents and requesters.
The closer testing gets to real work, the more useful the results become.
Validate Data, Configuration and Access
Migration validation should cover more than record counts.
Teams should review the areas that determine whether users can continue working correctly after cutover.
Data
Confirm that expected issues, comments, attachments, pages, spaces and other supported content are present.
Configuration
Review workflows, statuses, issue types, custom fields, automation, service project settings and related configuration.
Users and Groups
Confirm that users and groups appear as expected and that access aligns with the approved target model.
Permissions
Test project, space, administrative and restricted-content access using representative user accounts.
Links and References
Verify that important links between content, projects, knowledge and operational resources still lead users where expected.
Atlassian notes that its migration assistants move the majority of supported entities and configuration items, but not every item is necessarily supported. Agencies should understand what is and is not included before defining migration acceptance criteria.
Test the User Experience, Not Just the Backend
Technical validation answers whether the migration ran.
User Acceptance Testing answers whether people can still do their jobs.
UAT should include people who understand the actual business process, such as:
- Atlassian administrators
- Service owners
- Project leads
- Service desk agents
- Program managers
- Knowledge owners
- Security representatives
- Business users
Give those users real scenarios rather than asking them simply to look around the new environment.
For example:
Scenario: An employee submits a service request.
Test whether the user can find the portal, submit the request, attach information, receive confirmation and view updates.
Then test whether the agent can receive it, assign it, move it through the workflow, meet approval requirements, communicate with the requester and close the request correctly.
A migration can be technically successful while still creating operational issues. UAT helps expose that difference.
Include Marketplace Apps and Integrations in Testing
Apps and integrations can be some of the most important dependencies in an Atlassian environment.
For AGC, only a subset of Marketplace apps is currently available and Atlassian requires customers to conduct a security assessment for Marketplace apps they intend to use. Atlassian also advises organizations to review migration paths with Marketplace partners where applicable.
Testing should therefore confirm:
- App availability
- Required app configuration
- App data behavior
- Workflow dependencies
- Integration endpoints
- API connections
- Webhooks
- External data flows
If a current Data Center capability will be replaced or redesigned, that new process should be tested with the same attention as a migrated capability.
Use Test Results to Build the Cutover Plan
A strong test migration should directly inform the production cutover.
Teams should document how long major activities took, where manual intervention was required, which issues appeared and how those issues were resolved.
That information can help define:
- Migration start time
- Expected outage or restricted-use period
- Data freeze timing
- Technical responsibilities
- Validation sequence
- User communications
- Escalation procedures
- Go/no-go decisions
- Post-cutover support
The test phase should reduce uncertainty around the production event.
It should also help teams identify activities that can be completed before the final migration rather than during the cutover window.
Define Go/No-Go Criteria Before Cutover
Agencies should decide what must be true before the environment is opened for normal use.
Examples may include:
- Critical data validated
- Priority workflows tested
- Identity and access confirmed
- Key integrations operational
- Required Marketplace apps available
- Service portals accessible
- High-priority knowledge verified
- No unresolved critical migration issues
- Support teams prepared for launch
These criteria should be agreed upon before the cutover begins.
That avoids making important decisions under time pressure during the migration window.
Prepare for Rollback and Escalation
Even with strong testing, migration teams should know what they will do if a critical issue appears.
The cutover plan should define:
- Who has decision authority
- What constitutes a critical issue
- When escalation occurs
- Which teams need to be involved
- What contingency options exist
- How users will be notified
Not every issue requires abandoning a migration.
The important point is having agreed decision paths before teams are working against a production deadline.
Validate Again After Production Migration
Cutover completion should trigger another round of validation.
Teams should confirm the most important operational paths first:
Can users sign in?
Can they access the right work?
Are service portals functioning?
Are workflows moving?
Are integrations operating?
Are notifications being delivered?
Is critical knowledge available?
Atlassian’s AGC migration process includes production validation and post-migration tasks as separate parts of the journey.
This is especially important for government organizations where Atlassian may support services or programs that users depend on continuously.
Plan Hypercare Around Real Operational Risk
The first days after migration deserve dedicated attention.
Agencies should establish a short-term support model that makes it easy to identify and resolve migration-related issues.
That can include:
- A defined support team
- Priority issue categories
- Daily review of open problems
- User communication channels
- Service-owner check-ins
- Integration monitoring
- Access issue tracking
- Adoption support
Teams should pay particular attention to problems that affect mission-critical work, rather than treating every post-migration request with the same priority.
Protect the Work, Not Just the Migration
A successful AGC migration is not defined only by whether data reaches the target environment.
It is defined by whether the agency can continue operating.
Testing should prove that the environment works. UAT should prove that people can use it. Cutover planning should protect important services. Post-migration validation should confirm that the production environment is functioning as intended.
When these activities are planned together, agencies can move to AGC with greater confidence in the work that depends on Atlassian every day.
How Clovity Can Support AGC Testing and Cutover
As an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, Clovity supports government organizations across Atlassian Government Cloud planning, migration, testing, cutover, governance and post-migration operations.
Clovity can assist with:
- Migration readiness assessments
- Test migration planning
- UAT scenarios and acceptance criteria
- Workflow and configuration validation
- Marketplace app assessment
- Integration testing
- Identity and permission validation
- Cutover runbooks
- Go/no-go criteria
- Production validation
- Post-migration support
Clovity was also the first Atlassian partner to deploy Atlassian Government Cloud for HHS and was named Atlassian Partner of the Year 2026 - Government Americas.
For government teams, the objective is not simply to complete the migration. It is to protect the services, programs and mission-critical work that must continue once the new environment goes live.
📧 Contact us at info@clovity.com or visit www.clovity.com to get started today.
