Checklist

Data Migration Project Checklist

Deliver your data migration on time and on budget with our
comprehensive step-by-step guide

Created by Dylan Jones, Editor | Data Migration Pro.com

Checklist
Data Migration Project Checklist

An Experian checklist
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................03
2. About Experian Pandora..........................................................................................................................................03
3. Phase 1: Pre-migration planning .........................................................................................................................03
4. Phase 2: Project initiation .......................................................................................................................................05
5. Phase 3: Landscape analysis .................................................................................................................................06
6. Phase 4: Solution design .........................................................................................................................................07
7. Phase 5: Build & test ..................................................................................................................................................08
8. Phase 6: Execute & validate ...................................................................................................................................09
9. Phase 7: Decommission & monitor ......................................................................................................................09

Dylan Jones About Experian Pandora

Editor, Data Quality Pro Experian are creators of the analyst acclaimed Experian
Pandora, a high-performance data management software
Dylan Jones is the Editor and Founder of Data Quality Pro product that is deployed on data quality, data governance
and Data Migration Pro. He has over 20 years’ experience of and data migration projects across the globe.
delivering complex data quality and data-driven initiatives.
Dylan is a keynote speaker, author and regular publisher of Experian Pandora possesses unique technology that
expert insights on data quality related topics. enables it to tackle every phase of the data quality
management lifecycle with unrivalled performance and
ease of use.

To discuss a trial for your next data quality, data governance

or data migration project please contact Derek Munro :
[email protected].

Copyright Notice
© Experian

This document contains information, proprietary to Experian, which is protected by international copyright law. The
information contained herein may not be disclosed to third parties, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, without the
prior written consent of Experian.
Checklist
Data Migration Project Checklist

1. Introduction • Download Free Pandora Profiler

Data Migration projects are notorious for high failure rates • Request a Demo of Pandora Data Migration Edition
but what is the principle cause of failure? The root of the
problem lies with a lack of awareness. Data Migration To find out more about Experian Pandora, please visit
sponsors and project leaders simply underestimate the www.edq.com/uk
many activities that are required throughout the data
migration lifecycle.
“ Using Pandora, an associate analyst
Project leaders often ignore key requirements such as completed a data migration impact
the need for adopting a rigorous methodology, the right
technology and robust data quality principles. Omissions
assessment of an entire government
like these cost organisations heavily in the form of system in less than 3 days. Conventional
unplanned project delays and costs, not to mention the approaches would have taken weeks.”
frustration from business leaders as the planned go-live — John Morris, author of Practical Data Migration
date for the target system slips by months, often years.

This document will help data migration project leaders by

arming them with an extensive checklist that can be used
to validate their own approach. Think of it as a safety net to
3. Phase 1: Pre-Migration Planning
Have you assessed the viability of your migration with a
ensure that your data migration strategy has the necessary
pre-migration impact assessment?
components for success.
Most data migration projects go barrelling headlong into the
I hope you find this checklist a useful tool for improving the main project without considering whether the migration is
success rate of your future data migrations. viable, how long it will take, what technology it will require
and what major obstacles lie ahead. It is therefore advisable
2. About Experian Pandora Software to perform a pre-migration impact assessment to verify
A radically new approach to data migration technology the cost and likely outcome of the migration. The later you
Experian Pandora provides next generation technology plan on doing this the greater the risk. Adjust your strategy
for modern data demands. Focused on the areas of Data accordingly.
Quality Management, Data Migration and Data Governance,
our unique solution - Experian Pandora is transforming the Have you based project estimates on guesswork or a more
way data migration projects are delivered. accurate assessment?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone, most projects are based on
Traditional data migration technologies require resources previous project estimates at best or optimistic guesswork
and investment that you simply won’t need with Experian at worst.
Pandora. With Experian Pandora, the need for separate
Once again, your pre-migration impact assessment should
ETL, Data Profiling, Data Quality, Testing and Stewardship
provide far more accurate analysis of cost and resource
software is completely eliminated. What’s more, Pandora
requirements so if you have tight deadlines, a complex
runs on commodity hardware with users becoming
migration and limited resources make sure you perform a
proficient in days.
migration impact assessment asap.
Want to experience Experian Pandora for yourself?
Have you made the business and IT communities aware of
Download the Experian Pandora free data profiler and start
the need for their involvement?
managing your data quality today. When you’re ready, feel
It makes perfect sense to inform the relevant data
free to request a demo of our full Experian Pandora Data
stakeholders and technical teams of their forthcoming
Migration solution. Alternatively, read a detailed report
commitments before the migration kicks off.
from Bloor research on why Experian Pandora represents a
radically new approach to tackling data migration projects.

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It can be very difficult to drag a subject matter expert out of small bunch of data migration, data quality and business
their day job for a 2-3 hours analysis session once a week if analysts can perform the bulk of the migration discovery,
their seniors are not fully aware of what lies ahead. quality analysis and mapping well before the developers get
involved, often creating a far more successful (and much
In addition, by identifying what resources are required in cheaper) overall migration.
advance you will eliminate the risk of having gaps in your
legacy or target skillset. The lesson is to understand the key migration activities
and dependencies then plan to have the right resources
There are numerous aspects of a data migration that available when required.
require business sign-off and commitment. Get in front of
sponsors and stakeholders well in advance and ensure they Have you determined the optimal project delivery
understand AND agree to what their involvement will be.   structure?
Data migrations do not always suit a waterfall approach yet
Have you formally agreed the security restrictions for the vast majority of data migration plans I have witnessed
your project? nearly always resemble a classic waterfall design of
I have painful memories of one migration where we thought Analyse, Design, Build, Test and Launch, all executed in a
everything was in place so kicked off the project only to be linear fashion.
promptly shut down on the very first day.
Agile, iterative project planning, with tangible delivery
We had assumed that the security measures agreed with drops are often far more effective in creating value for the
the client project manager were sufficient but we did not business so ensure that your overall plan is flexible enough
account for the corporate security team getting demanding to cope with the likely change events that will occur.
a far more stringent set of controls. This resulted in an
unplanned 8 weeks project delay. Have you created a structured task workflow so each
member will understand what tasks are expected and in
Don’t make the same mistake. which sequence?
Obtain a formal agreement from corporate security in Most data migration project plans consist of some vague
advance and follow security policies to the letter. Simply drop dates or timelines that indicate when the business
putting your head in the sand and hoping you won’t get or technical teams require a specific release or activity to
caught is highly unprofessional and clearly a risk-fuelled be completed. What this will not show you is the precise
strategy. workflow that will get you to those points. This needs to be
ideally defined before project inception so that there is no
Have you identified your key project resources and when confusion as you move into the initiation phase. Carrying
they are required? this out before project inception will also help you identify
Don’t start your project hoping that an agency or systems gaps in your resourcing model where the necessary skills
integrator will magically provision those missing resources or budgets are lacking.
you need.
Have you created the appropriate training documentation
I met a company several months ago who decided they and designed a training plan?
did not require a lead data migration analyst because the Data migration projects typically require a lot of additional
‘project plan was so well defined’. Suffice to say they’re now tools and project support platforms to function smoothly
heading for major delays as the project spins out of control so you must ensure that all your training materials and
through lack of specialist leadership. education tools are tested and in place prior to project
inception.
Make sure you understand precisely what roles are required
on a data migration and ensure you have a plan for bringing Ideally you would want all the resources to be fully trained
those roles into the project at the right time. in advance of the project but if this isn’t possible at least
ensure that training and education is factored into the plan.
For example, there is a tendency to launch a project with a
full contingent of developers armed with tools at the ready
and raring to go. This is both costly and unnecessary. A

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Do you have a configuration management policy and the delay will not win you any sympathy from poorly engaged
appropriate software in place? business leaders.
Data migration projects create a lot of resource
To communicate with stakeholders obviously assumes
materials. Profiling results, data quality issues, mapping
you know who they are and how to contact them so record
specifications, interface specifications - the list is endless.
all the different types of stakeholder and their preferred
The sheer volume of materials required on a project can
communication pathway.
soon overwhelm team members and finding the latest,
most accurate versions can be extremely difficult without a Have you tweaked and published your project policies?
policy in place. Now is the time to get your policies completed and
circulated across the team and new recruits. Any policies
Ensure that you have a well-defined configuration
that define how the business will be involved during the
management approach in place before project inception.
project also need to be circulated and signed off.
You don’t want to be stumbling through project initiation
trying to test out different approaches. Don’t assume that everyone knows what is expected of
them so get people used to learning about and signing off
Have you planned for a secure, collaborative working
project policies early in the lifecycle.
environment to be in place?
If your project is likely to involve 3rd parties and cross- Have you created a high-level, first-cut project plan?
organisational support then it pays to use a dedicated If you have followed best practice and implemented a pre-
product for managing all the communications, materials, migration impact assessment you should have a reasonable
planning and coordination on the project. Having a unified level of detail for your project plan. If not, simply complete
project ‘hub’ will also make your project run smoother if this with as much detail as possible with an agreed caveat that
is configured and ready prior to project initiation. the data discovery exercises will drive the strategy of the
project.
Have you created an agreed set of data migration policy
documents? Tip: It is still beneficial to carry out a migration impact
How will project staff be expected to handle data securely? assessment during the initiation phase irrespective of the
Who will be responsible for signing off data quality rules? analysis activities that take place in the next phase.
What escalation procedures will be in place?
You cannot create accurate timelines for your project plan
There are a multitude of different policies required for a until you have analysed the data.
typical migration to run smoothly. It pays to agree these in
advance of the migration so that the project initiation phase For example, simply creating an arbitrary 8-week window
runs effortlessly. for data cleansing activities on your project plan is
meaningless if the data is found to be truly abysmal.
4. Phase 2: Project Initiation
Have you created a stakeholder communication plan and It is also vital that you understand the dependencies in a
stakeholder register? data migration project in some considerable depth. You can’t
During this phase you need to formalise how each build the mappings in a data migration tool until you have
stakeholder will be informed. We may well have created an discovered the relationships and you can’t do this until the
overall policy beforehand but now we need to instantiate it analysis and discovery phase has completed.
with each individual stakeholder.
Don’t just rely on a carbon copy of a previous data migration
Don’t create an anxiety gap in your project where your project plan or some template downloaded from the web.
stakeholders witness no discernible progress for months at Your plan will be dictated by the conditions found on the
a time. ground and the wider programme commitments that your
particular project dictates.
Determine what level of reporting you will deliver for each
type of stakeholder and get agreement with them on the
format and frequency. Dropping them an email six months
into the project explaining why you’re headed for a 8 week

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Have you created your standard project document Have you defined the hardware and software
templates? requirements for the later phases?
During this phase you must create project documentation What machines will the team run on? What software will
such as risk register, issue register, acceptance criteria, they need? What licenses will you require at each phase?
project controls, job descriptions, project progress report,
Sounds obvious but not for one recent project manager who
change management report, RACI etc.
completely forgot to put the order in and had to watch 7
They do not need to be complete but they do need to be members of his team sitting idly by as the purchase order
formalised with a process that everyone is aware of. crawled through procurement!

Have you defined and formalised your 3rd Party supplier Don’t make the same mistake. Look at each phase of the
agreements and requirements? project and determine what software and hardware will be
Project initiation is a great starting point to determine what required.
additional expertise is required but ideally this should have
For example, to complete your project successfully you will
been done prior to the project commencing.
require combinations of the following:
Don’t leave assumptions when engaging with external
• Data discovery and profiling software
suppliers, there should be clear instructions on what exactly
needs to be delivered. One particular grey area that many • Data quality management, cleansing and monitoring
project leaders ignore is the agreement surrounding data software
quality. Who will be responsible for correcting data defects
on your project? Make sure this is clearly defined in all • ETL/ data movement software
supplier agreements.
• Data stewardship and testing software
Have you scheduled your next phase tasks adequately?
You will also need to determine what operating systems,
At this phase you should be meticulously planning your
hardware and licensing is required to build your analysis,
next phase activities to ensure that the business and IT
test, QA and production servers. It can often take weeks to
communities are aware of the workshops they will be
procure this kind of equipment so you ideally need to have
involved in and the deliverables they will be expected to
done this even before project initiation.
create.

Have you resolved any security issues and gained 5. Phase 3: Landscape Analysis
approved access to the legacy datasets? Have you created a detailed data dictionary?
Don’t assume that because your project has been signed A data dictionary can mean many things to many people
off you will automatically be granted access to the data. Get but it is advisable to create a simple catalogue of all
approvals from security representatives (before this phase the information you have retrieved on the data under
if possible) and consult with IT on how you will be able to assessment. Make this tool easy to search, accessible but
analyse the legacy and source systems without impacting with role-based security in place where required. A project
the business. wiki is a useful tool in this respect.

Full extracts of data on a secure, independent analysis Have you created a high-level source to target mapping
platform is the best option but you may have to specification?
compromise. At this stage you will not have a complete source-to-target
specification but you should have identified the high-level
It is advisable to create a security policy for the project objects and relationships that will be linked during the
so that everyone is aware of their responsibilities and the migration. These will be further analysed in the later design
professional approach you will be taking on the project. phase.
Designate someone as the ‘security officer’ on the project
so that there is a single point of contact regarding security
queries.

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Has the risk management process been shared with the Have you created conceptual/logical/physical and
team and are they continuously updating the risk register common models?
as issues are discovered? These models are incredibly important for communicating
There will be many issues discovered during this phase so and defining the structure of the legacy and target
make it easy for risks to be recorded. For example, create environments plus the common model that will bridge them
a simple online form where anyone can add risks during together.
their analysis, you can also filter them out later but for now
The reason we need so many modelling layers is to
we need to gather as many as possible and see where any
understand all aspects of the migration from the deeply
major issues are coming from.
technical through to how the business community run
You will need to create a separate data quality risk operations today and how they wish to run operations in the
management process to cope with the large volume of future.
issues discovered. Manage this proactively in weekly
We will be discussing the project with various business and
workshops with a cross-section of business, IT and project
IT groups so the different models help us to convey meaning
staff to ensure rapid resolution of the problems discovered.
for the appropriate community.
Have you created a data quality management process and
Creating conceptual and logical models also help us to
impact report?
identify gaps in thinking or design between the source and
If you’ve been following our advice on Data Migration Pro.
target environments far earlier in the project so we can
com and Data Quality Pro.com you will know that without a
make corrections to the solution design. 
robust data quality rules management process your project
will almost certainly fail or experience delays. Have you refined your project estimates?
Most projects start with some vague notion of how long
Understand the concept of data quality rules discovery,
each phase will take. Use your landscape analysis phase
management and resolution so you deliver a migration that
to determine the likely timescales based on data quality,
is fit for purpose.
complexity, resources available, technology constraints and
The data quality process is not a one-stop effort, it will a host of other factors that will help you determine how to
continue throughout the project but at this phase one of estimate the project timelines.
our main goals is discovering the impact of the data so
decisions can be made that could affect project timescales, 6. Phase 4: Solution Design
deliverables, budget and resourcing. Have you created a detailed mapping design specification?
By the end of this phase you should have a thorough
Carry out your data quality management process through specification of how the source and target objects will
the use of high performance data discovery, profiling be mapped, down to attribute level. This needs to be
and data quality management software to find, measure, at a sufficient level to be passed to a developer for
improve and monitor the many thousands of data quality implementation in a data migration tool.
rules you need to govern on the project.
Note that we do not progress immediately into build
Have you created and shared a first-cut system retirement following landscape analysis. It is far more cost-effective
strategy? to map out the migration using specifications as opposed
Now is the time to begin warming up the business to the to coding which can prove expensive and more complex to
fact that their current systems will be decommissioned re-design if issues are discovered.
post-migration. Ensure that stakeholders are briefed on
the aims of the project and start the process of discovering Have you created an interface design specification?
what is required to terminate the legacy systems. Better to At the end of this stage you should have a firm design for
address this now than to leave it until later in the project any interface designs that are required to extract the data
when politics may prevent progress. from your legacy systems or to load the data into the target
systems.

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For example, some migrations require change data capture Have you tested the migration with a mirror of the live
functionality so this needs to be designed and prototyped environment?
during this phase. It is advisable to test the migration with data from the
production environment, not a smaller sample set. By
Have you created a data quality management limiting your test data sample you will almost certainly run
specification? into conditions within the live data that cause a defect in
This will define how you plan to manage the various data your migration at runtime.
quality issues discovered during the landscape analysis
phase. These may fall into certain categories such as: Have you developed a reconciliation testing strategy?
Many projects base the success of migration on how many
• Ignore
“fall-outs” they witness during the process. This is typically
• Cleanse in source where an item of data cannot be migrated due to some
constraint or rule violation in the target or transformation
• Cleanse in staging process data stores. They then go on to resolve these fall-outs and
when no more loading issues are found carry out some
• Cleanse in-flight using coding logic
basic volumetric testing.
• Cleanse on target
“We had 10,000 customers in our legacy
Have you defined your production hardware system and we now have 10,000 customers
requirements? in our target, job done”.
At this stage you should have a much firmer idea of what
technology will be required in the production environment.
Case Study: I recently took a call from a community
The volumetric and interface throughput performance member based in Oman. Their hospital had subcontracted
should also be known as you need to specify the appropriate a data migration to a company who had since completed
equipment, RAID configurations, operating systems etc. the project. Several months after the migration project
they discovered that many thousands of patients now
Have you agreed the service level agreements for the had incomplete records, missing attributes and generally
migration? sub-standard data quality. Never underestimate the
At this phase it is advisable to agree with the business importance of reconciliation testing.
sponsors what your migration will deliver, by when and to
what quality.
Reconciliation testing is vital to ensure that all of your
Quality, cost and time are variables that need to be agreed legacy data has migrated successfully. Create a robust
upon prior to the build phase so ensure that your sponsors testing process that can guarantee the quality of the data
are aware of the design limitations of the migration and migrated compared to the original legacy data.
exactly what that will mean to the business services they
plan to launch on the target platform. Have you defined your reporting strategy and associated
technology?
7. Phase 5: Build & Test Following on from the previous point, you need to create a
Has your build team documented the migration logic? robust reporting strategy so that the various roles involved
The team managing the migration execution may not be in the project execution can see progress in a format that
the team responsible for coding the migration logic. It is suits them.
therefore essential that the transformations and rules
that were used to map the legacy and target environments For example, a data migration manager may wish to see
are accurately published. This will allow the execution daily statistics whereas a data migration operator will
team to analyse the root-cause of any subsequent issues prefer to see runtime statistics. Business sponsors may
discovered. wish to see weekly performance but business users may
wish to progress by business function or even data subject
areas.

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If you have created service level agreements these need to Have you defined the data migration execution strategy?
be incorporated into the reporting strategy so that you can Some migration executions can be over in hours, others
track and verify progress against each SLA. can take weeks or even months. You will need to create a
detailed plan of how the migration execution will take place.
Have you defined an ongoing data quality management This includes sections such as what data will be moved,
solution? who will sign-off each phase, what tests will be carried
Data quality is continuous and it should certainly not cease out, what data quality levels are anticipated, when will
when the migration has been delivered. The new users of the business be able to use the data and what transition
the system may well introduce errors through inexperience measures need to be taken.
so plan for this by building an ongoing data quality
management environment for the target platform. This can become quite a considerable activity so as ever,
plan well in advance.
Ideally, you should use the same data quality technology
deployed on the data migration as it will be fully populated Have you created a gap-analysis process for measuring
with all the data quality rules required for ongoing actual vs current progress?
management and maintenance. This is particularly appropriate on larger scale migrations.

Have you created a data migration fall-back policy? If you have indicated to the business that you will be
What if the migration fails? How will you rollback? What executing the migration over an 8 week period and that
needs to be done to facilitate this? specific deliverables will be created you can then map that
out in a chart with time points and anticipated volumes.
The best advice is to hope for the best but plan for the
worst. Fall-back planning can often be complex and require As your migration executes you can then chart actual vs
cross-organisation support so plan well in advance of the estimated so you can identify any gaps or expected delays.
go-live date.
8. Phase 6: Execute & Validate
Have you confirmed and planned your legacy Have you kept an accurate log of SLA progress?
decommission strategy? You will need to demonstrate to the business sponsors
By now you should have a clear approach, with full and independent auditors that your migration has been
agreement, of how you will decommission the legacy compliant. How you will do this varies but if you have agreed
environment following the migration execution. You need to SLA’s in advance these need to be reported against.
be communicating with all stakeholders exactly what will
happen to their systems after the migration completes. Have you independently validated the migration?
You cannot rely on your migration architecture to validate
Have you completed all relevant execution training? the migration. An independent process is advisable to
The team running the execution phase may differ to those ensure that the migration process has delivered the data to
on the build phase. The migration execution can be complex a sufficient quality level to support the target services.
so ensure that the relevant training materials are planned
for and delivered by the end of this phase. 9. Phase 7: Decommission & Monitor
Have you obtained sign-off for anticipated data quality Have you completed your system retirement validation?
levels in the target? There will typically be a number of pre-conditions that need
It is rare that all historical data defects can be resolved to be met before a system can be terminated. Ensure these
prior to migration but at this stage you should certainly are fully documented and agreed (this should have been
know what they are and what impact they will cause. done in earlier phases) so you can begin validating that the
migration has met these conditions.
The data is not the responsibility of the migration load
team; it belongs to the business so ensure they sign off Have you handed over ownership of the data quality
any anticipated issues so that they are fully aware of the management environment?
limitations the data presents. Close down your project by passing over the process and
technology adopted to measure data quality during the
project.

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