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Data Migration Project

Data Migration Project

Comprehensive plan for safely migrating data between systems or platforms

Technology

Template Items (17)

  • Initial data migration planning

    +1 day after start

    #1

  • Define migration scope and objectives

    +2 days after start

    #2

  • Analyze source and target systems

    +5 days after start

    #3

  • Create data inventory and mapping

    +8 days after start

    #4

  • Develop data cleaning strategy

    +12 days after start

    #5

  • Design migration architecture

    +15 days after start

    #6

  • Create backup plan and rollback strategy

    +18 days after start

    #7

  • Develop data validation rules

    +21 days after start

    #8

  • Build migration scripts and tools

    +25 days after start

    #9

  • Set up test environment

    +28 days after start

    #10

  • Perform test migration

    +32 days after start

    #11

  • Validate test migration results

    +35 days after start

    #12

  • Fix identified issues

    +38 days after start

    #13

  • Create migration schedule and plan

    +42 days after start

    #14

  • Perform production migration

    +45 days after start

    #15

  • Validate migrated data

    +47 days after start

    #16

  • Post-migration monitoring

    +50 days after start

    #17

Using this template will create a new list with all the items shown above. You can rename the list, and optionally add due dates counted from a start date you choose.

Who this is for

17 tasks for moving data between systems — a platform change, a database upgrade, a consolidation after an acquisition. It's built around the assumption that a migration is not a copy operation but a series of rehearsals, each one finding problems the last one didn't.

Profile the source data before designing the target

The audit and profiling tasks come first because real data never matches its documentation. There will be nulls in required fields, dates in three formats, duplicates that differ by whitespace, and records referencing things that no longer exist. Discovering these during the cutover is how migrations turn into weekend-long incidents.

Map every field explicitly, including the ones you plan to drop. We didn't migrate that is a defensible decision; we didn't notice that isn't.

Rehearse the whole thing, timed

The test migration task means running the full process against a copy of production and recording how long it takes. That number determines whether your cutover window is realistic, and it's usually longer than estimated. Run it more than once — the second pass validates that the process is repeatable rather than something someone hand-fixed halfway through.

Have a rollback you've actually tested

Write down the point of no return and what you do on either side of it. A rollback plan that's never been executed is a hope. So is a backup nobody has restored.

Validate after, not just before

The reconciliation tasks — row counts, checksums, spot-checking records users care about — are what let you say the migration succeeded rather than that it completed.

Timing

Turn on due dates. Six to ten weeks is typical, and the sequencing is what keeps rehearsals from being skipped under deadline pressure.

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