Migrating from ClickUp to SimpleOne SDLC in a Week

Project Background

In 2022, the Grandbazar team ran into a situation that plenty of companies have faced — its task management tool, ClickUp, stopped working. The shutdown happened abruptly, with no option for a smooth data migration.

The team urgently needed a solution that would let them:

• restore development management processes;
• track tasks at multiple levels: epics, stories, subtasks;
• manage sprints under Scrum;
• integrate with GitLab.

Choosing a Solution

After ClickUp went offline, the Grandbazar team began looking for an alternative that would restore development processes quickly. They chose SimpleOne SDLC for several reasons:

1. Version control integration — the team needed to connect tasks to GitLab, its main tool for working with code. SimpleOne SDLC offered a ready-made integration.
2. Scrum out of the box: task boards, sprints, and epic/story breakdowns — everything needed for agile workflows was available right out of the box.
3. Flexible process configuration — the ability to split tasks by project module (frontend, backend, design) and shape the structure around the team's specific needs.
4. Vendor risk mitigation — choosing a platform that met local compliance requirements helped ensure the team wouldn't face another sudden vendor exit.

Together, these factors — ready-made infrastructure, strong Scrum functionality, and compliance with internal corporate requirements — made SimpleOne SDLC the clear choice for quickly restoring the team's processes.

Migration: A Fast Turnaround in a Week

The migration from ClickUp happened on a tight timeline and under unusual circumstances. The system went down without warning, and with no automated way to transfer data, the team had to move everything manually.

The migration took about a week:

• ClickUp went offline, and the team temporarily switched to working in Excel;
• SimpleOne SDLC was deployed and the basic project structure was set up;
• active tasks were migrated, boards were configured, and full-scale work resumed.

The team chose not to wait for every piece of historical data to be transferred. The priority was restoring day-to-day workflows quickly — active tasks were migrated first, with archival data pulled in gradually afterward.

The transition didn't interrupt development. A week after ClickUp went offline, the team was working entirely in the new system, maintaining its two-week release cycle and handling its usual task volume.

Functionality Implemented

After the migration, the Grandbazar team configured SimpleOne SDLC around its development processes. The system now manages every task, from planning through release.

Tasks are split across two main boards — development and design — letting the two teams work independently within a single system. Within each board, tasks are grouped by project module: frontend, backend, infrastructure, and other platform components.

The product team works in two-week release cycles, handling 40–50 tasks per sprint. Planning, progress tracking, and sprint closeout all happen in SDLC, giving the team visibility across every development track.

Grandbazar breaks work down into multiple task levels: epics for large functional blocks, user stories for describing requirements, and technical tasks for specific implementation work. SimpleOne's modular structure helps the team group related tasks logically

Linking tasks to GitLab commits and branches gives developers useful context — they can quickly find the code tied to a given task, or trace a commit back to the functionality it affects.

The entire development team's work lives in SDLC — a single entry point for planning, tracking, and coordination between developers and designers.

Results

The main outcome of the SimpleOne SDLC rollout was a fast recovery of development processes after the sudden vendor exit. The Grandbazar team avoided a prolonged disruption and kept working at its usual pace.

Today, more than 200 tasks a month move through the unified system. Developers, designers, and project managers all work in one shared space, which simplifies coordination and reduces the risk of losing information.

Scrum practices stayed exactly the same — two-week sprints, planning sessions, and retrospectives. SimpleOne SDLC supported the team's existing habits without forcing a process overhaul.

Working within a single SimpleOne ecosystem (ITSM + SDLC) opens up further automation potential — linking development tasks to ITSM incidents, change requests, and releases.

Looking Ahead

Grandbazar plans to expand its use of SimpleOne SDLC as the product evolves and new functionality becomes available.

One priority is setting up links between development and design tasks, which will make it easier to track dependencies between teams and see the full picture of work on a feature, from design through release. This capability has recently been improved on the platform, and the team plans to test it.

The platform now also supports customizing status models for each project, opening the door to adapting workflows to Grandbazar's specific processes, which don't fully match standard templates.

SimpleOne SDLC met a critical need for a development management system during a period of vendor transition. The Grandbazar team is now focused on optimizing its processes and making fuller use of the platform's advanced capabilities to improve development efficiency.