Prepare tools and initial migration backlog for Microsoft Fabric

To implement your migration to Microsoft Fabric, you need appropriate tools and a clear, well-maintained backlog of data workloads and assets. This guidance helps you define Fabric-native tools and agile practices to manage migrations at scale.

Prepare Fabric tooling

For a successful Fabric adoption journey, leverage specific tools to assess, plan, and track migration tasks iteratively:

Tool type	Functionality	Tool
Discovery & Assessment	Scan, analyze and classify your data estate to identify dependencies and scope complexity	Microsoft Purview Data Map, Fabric Workload Analyzer, Azure Migrate
Data Ingestion	Move data into Fabric environments (OneLake, Lakehouse, Warehouse, etc.)	Dataflow Gen2, Pipelines, Notebooks, Eventstream
Tracking & Planning	Manage the agile delivery of migration tasks and dependencies	Azure DevOps, Microsoft Planner, Excel
Governance Framework	Define access, compliance, ownership, and standards	Microsoft Fabric Landing Zone Kit, Entra ID, Microsoft Purview
Automation	Automate repetitive onboarding/configuration steps	Fabric CLI, Azure CLI, Bicep, GitHub Actions

Note
Fabric CLI can be used to script workspace creation, permission assignments, pipeline deployments and more. Favor native tooling unless legacy constraints apply.

Build your Fabric migration backlog

Organize work as an agile backlog

Use agile epics, features, and user stories to represent your migration backlog in tools like Azure DevOps or GitHub Projects:

• Epic: Each domain or data workspace (e.g., Sales Analytics, IoT Telemetry)
• Feature: A Fabric workload such as Lakehouse, Warehouse, Notebook, or Power BI Semantic Model
• User story: Migrate a specific dataset or pipeline component (e.g., Sales Transactions Stream, ERP History Table)
• Tasks: Migration activities such as ingestion config, semantic modeling, role assignment, testing

Track by business priority

Tie every backlog item to business value:

• Define goals (e.g., replace legacy DWH, enable real-time dashboards)
• Assign business owners
• Capture success KPIs (e.g., reduced refresh duration, SLAs, data quality scores)

Manage for multiple tenants or regions

If your Fabric adoption includes multi-tenant or sovereign setups, segment your backlog accordingly. Use separate epics for each geography or regulatory boundary (e.g., EU Tenant, US Sovereign Fabric).

Backlog capture templates

• Use Migration Execution Guide or create structured Excel/CSV files with:
  • Domain
  • Data product
  • Source system
  • Target Fabric workload
  • Priority
  • Dependencies
  • Status
  • Owner

You can link these backlog items directly to Fabric CLI scripts or DevOps pipelines to streamline promotion and validation.

Lifecycle integration

The Fabric migration backlog is not static. Continuously evolve the backlog during assessment, remediation, testing, and go-live iterations.

Consider maintaining the backlog in a Git repo alongside deployment Bicep templates and YAML pipelines for traceability and automation.