If you’ve volunteered to manage your data migration project you may be wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. This is a sizeable task that is extremely important to the success of your implementation project and will be stressful at times. Don’t worry, you can do it! The first task should be to create a plan which includes a list of Resources including the subject matter experts for each group of data, users that are familiar with the data that can do the testing and the individuals that will be doing the heavy lifting.

Create a Task List and Schedule

You’ll want to create a Task List to identify all of the steps required to get the data out of your current system, clean it up and import it into your new system. The migration process needs to be repeatable so include any requirements for creating the automation and validation of the data. A Schedule will come in handy to lay out the sequence of events and give your project manager and stakeholders a vision of the effort involved and the timeline required.

Set Goals for your team

Everyone on a project team should ideally agree on the goals for the data migration project. Obvious goals include the right data and the right amount of data. A goal may be to clean the data to comply with new company standards or to make changes to the chart of accounts which can be of benefit for the new system. Security is always important when it comes to your data so be sure to identify the methods and requirements for protecting your data through every step of project.

Test It

The only way you’ll know if the data in the new system meets your requirements is if you test it. Test scripts should be prepared so users familiar with the data can help review it by stepping through all of their daily transactions in your new system. This also provides a training opportunity on the new system for those users. Always be sure to include the key reports in your test scripts. Reports to review your financials, inventory, warehouse, etc. are mandatory for comparing your data between the two systems to help find any discrepancies and to keep the auditors at bay after go live.

Like any major project, spending the time to investigate and define the goals of the project before you start will make sure the data migration process runs smoothly and successfully.