System Architectures vs. Data Hierarchies

If you work with business technology, you have likely come across the term System Architecture, an all-encompassing term representing the overall structure of a system and the components that make up that structure.

The term "Data Hierarchy" is one of the main components within any system architecture, defining how data is stored, managed, distributed, and accessed by users. While these hierarchies differ for every software tool, they help users make sense of their data within the context of the whole system and enable them to understand how to move data from one place to another.

Comparing Data Hierarchies

Transferring your projects, processes, and workflows from one work management tool to another is a lot like moving to a new home. Before you start moving your furniture and other items, you need to consider the number of rooms, bathrooms, and overall space you're going to have so that you can plan the logistics. Are you moving from a smaller room to a bigger one? From one story to two? From a closed concept to an open one? The answer to each question will help you determine where to place your furniture, store your items, and fill space.

Similarly, you’ll need to store your existing projects, processes, and workflows in another data hierarchy which may consist of new folder structures and increased storage. Before transferring your projects and tasks, it’s crucial that you compare the data hierarchy of each tool to plan exactly where each piece of data will fit into the new structure. 

For instance, Asana uses the following data hierarchy to store project and task data:

1. Organization - a centralized hub for anyone with a business domain to join as a paid member, or non-domain user as a Guest
2. Team - a space where team members can work on multiple projects
3. Project - an individual project, process, or workflow for team members to collaboratively manage a set of tasks
4. Task - an action item within a Project
5. Subtask - a supplemental action item within a parent task‍

Another work management tool, ClickUp, uses a slightly different hierarchy:

1. Workspace - a centralized hub for any invited user to join as a paid member or Guest
2. Space - a space where team members can work on multiple projects
3. Folder - a folder to categorize multiple Lists
4. List - an individual project, process, or workflow for team members to collaboratively manage a set of tasks
5. Task - an action item within a List
6. Subtask - a supplemental action item within a parent task

By reading the brief definitions of each level of the data hierarchy of Asana and ClickUp, you can easily identify where your data can most likely be transferred. Teams can be converted to Spaces, Projects to Lists, and Tasks and Subtasks respectively. You can also understand the differences in each hierarchy and where it may reduce or expand your level of flexibility in the new system. In the case of an Asana to ClickUp migration, users would have a new ability to group Lists in folders, an extra layer of organization that Asana’s hierarchy doesn’t offer.

Data Hierarchy Limitations

With every software tool comes an inevitable set of technical limitations which are crucial to account for before you move your work from one tool to another. Some tools use data hierarchies that may look similar, but possess a number of limitations that make them dramatically different. Let’s take a moment to revisit the Asana data hierarchy, and this time, compare it to Microsoft Planner. 

Asana Data Hierarchy

1. Organization - a centralized hub for anyone with a business domain to as a paid member, or non-domain user as a Guest
2. Team - a space where team members can work on multiple projects
3. Project - an individual project, process, or workflow for team members to collaboratively manage a set of tasks
4. Task - an action item within a Project
5. Subtask - a supplemental action item within a parent task

Microsoft Planner Data Hierarchy

1. Microsoft Group - a centralized hub for any Microsoft 365 user to join and collaborate on work with other team members
2. Plan - an individual project, process, or workflow for team members to collaboratively manage a set of tasks
3. Task - an action item within a Project
4. Checklist Item - a supplemental action item within a parent task

At a glance, both hierarchies may seem compatible enough for a seamless transition until you discover the limitations placed on each element within Planner's model, such as the inability to add custom fields, visualize projects across different views, or automatically capture percentage of completion. Since Asana is dedicated to work management and Planner to task management, such a migration would prove to be more of a downgrade than an enhancement once the limitations are taken into consideration, despite the similarities of their structures.

Getting Started

The best way to start brainstorming your migration is to test your projects, processes, and workflows in the new product you’re moving to. You can often get free trials for SaaS tools which often last anywhere from 7 to 30 days (checkout our InfoBoards for free trial information on each product). We recommend scheduling sprints for you and your team to conduct product testing within set timeframes, as well as, setting criteria for each of the features you need to test within the context of your work. Are there custom fields or tags that need to transfer over? Reporting and analytics templates? Custom rules? How about milestones and task dependencies? The more questions you ask during testing, the more you’ll understand the strengths and weaknesses you will work with throughout the migration process.

For more information on data hierarchies, see our InfoBoards for a number of work management tools.