Migrations: Practice Makes Perfect

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Some years ago I was a technical lead for a large migration project (around one billion pieces of data). I’ve previously described the transformation structure and would like to share some further advice: practice, practice, practice! If, like my migration projects, there are a lot of complexities like in-flight direct debits and batch timing issues experience has shown that practice really pays off. What do I mean by practice? Once you have reached a point development of transformations and reconciliations is complete then the whole migration should be run against an accurate target (copies of live systems) and to the intended timing of the live migration (weekends, evening, whatever your choice). Make it as close as you can to the live environment (without actually issuing live transactions, of course… another topic) and I can more-or-less guarantee you will find some issues, but that’s the point: you don’t want any on the actual live run. How many practices will it take? I would suggest two to three but if you are migrating in stages you’ll get better at the practicing (meta practice?) so maybe just one will be enough. Good luck with your migration and simplify that landscape!

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