I am responsible for the Data Migration portion of a Legacy System Migration Strategy project. I have lots of ideas and plans. I was just wondering if any other PM's would like to offer up some practical advice, cautions, etc. regarding managing a project of this nature and magnitude. Saving Changes...
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John RomanskySenior Project Manager| MTS AllstreamToronto, Ontario, Canada
Depending on your client's culture and history, do not assume that the legacy system works to original spec, or that the data are not corrupt or incomplete. Many is the time I've heard "we'll just dump the information and audit it later, in the new environment". Naturally, the business dynamics change, people leave, budgets are overrun, and the audit is never done. Depending on what your data represent, they may reflect a picture of reality -- five or more years in the past. Garbage in, garbage out. Your project may deploy flawlessly, but if the data are corrupt, are you meeting your client's true business need? Try to find the most tenured, knowledgeable person you can find and pick their brain. You may be surprised at what was never documented. Saving Changes...
Documentation of existing applications/processes that use the "legacy data" are rarely complete and accurate. Data migration affects both applications and processes and you will uncover the missing links sooner or later. -It is imperative that the migration is done incrementally after mapping out the applications and data elements. -Dry runs of the migration will help a lot. -If there is a way to identify the incomplete/corrupt data from the existing legacy system and how that ought to be mapped to the new system, it will ease your pain. Saving Changes...
