As with any project, engaging with the business is paramount to ensuring that the motives are understood and that the objectives of the migration are clear. During the Strategy Phase, NWT works in partnership with the client to help prove the viability of the data migration, if this has not already been established. NWT has considerable real-world experience in data migration and understands that best strategy for each data migration project or programme will depend upon how much data you need to move, the types of workloads involved and how quickly the migration must be completed, together with an understanding of the security requirements that must be adhered to during migration. We do this by:

During the Data Discovery Phase, NWT can help to confirm and define data quality and the basis for mappings and transformations. We will conduct a thorough data assessment to identify areas of potential problems and, if necessary, address those before the migration occurs. Ideally the process of understanding the data should be driven from the business requirements, not from the data supporting them – this will help reduce the reliance on the technical aspects of the existing data which can potentially limit the delivery of the business information. At this stage, inhibitors to the migration can be identified through data profiling, such as inconsistent referential integrity or non-compliant data formats.

During the Design Phase, NWT will help to define the overall design of the migration, identifying the components, architecture, processes and interactions that will be necessary for the migration. During this phase, the mappings and transformations will be specified and, crucially, this will be the first point at which the business will sign off the initial mappings and assumptions. Coding of the transformations will then start, with testing being an integral part of the development process – preferably automated. The tools being used should provide business-focused translation of the technical transformations so that business users can understand the data flow and dependencies between data elements. At key stages the transformations and the output can then be viewed in the context of the business rules and this process will be repeated throughout to provide a level of confidence in the transformation processes during rehearsals and the transition itself.

During the Transformation Phase, the actual migration activity begins including all the conforming and cleansing that has previously been identified and accommodated within the code, along with other data flow process such as flow control and error handling. This phase will inevitably include some reporting to verify the volumetrics and context of the transformations and provide the basis on which the migration is proven to be accurate.

Both the Testing and Resilience and failover/recover Phases includes work at multiple levels including Testing and Resilience strategy, creation of a Recovery Plan to ensure that the business can continue to function in the event of a partial or complete failure.

During Transition Phase, NWT can help to define a Work Plan that covers in detail the mechanics of the transition, estimated timings, responsibilities, contingencies, entry and exit criteria at all levels, escalation points and paths. The Work Plan is an absolute, detailed definition of what will happen and when it is planned to happen including defining multiple dependencies and parallel tasks.

This plan is the reference point for all those involved in the migration and the transition and will have been widely circulated so that there is no ambiguity as to the content. The teams will have provided detailed input to the plan so that they are comfortable with the level of detail and criteria defined for the handover points within the plan. The plan includes all the pre-requisites which may be required or start weeks before the actual transition weekend. Typically, the plan documents:

• Pre-cutover activities and pre-requisites
• Approval
• Resources
• System and environment readiness
• Escalation paths
• References to other processes and documents required for successful transition
• Impact and dependencies on other systems – such as operational tasks, backups etc.
• Timings for all tasks and contingency available at different granularities
• Tasks identified that can run in parallel and where dependencies exist between tasks

NWT’s key objective during the Transition Phase is to carry out the data migration and all associated activities successfully including ensuring that:

• The stated objectives of the migration have been agreed, understood and signed off
• Testing has been satisfactorily completed and a good level of confidence achieved
• The transition has been rehearsed several times with a predictable and consistent outcome, notwithstanding extraneous factors that may be present on the day of the actual transition
• Entry and exit criteria – including reporting and reconciliation – have been well defined and agreed such that key people are happy to make decisions based upon such information
• There’s an unambiguous set of tests that help key individuals determine at any stage whether the migration is a “go” or “no go”.

During every phase, quality real time information must be available at a sufficiently granular level to be able to make quick, well-founded and substantiated decisions. This will provide an adaptable environment within which dynamic elements of the transition can be managed and accommodated. The level of detail must be more than an event summary for example, it would be insufficient to report that a 15 hour process has had problems without understanding at which point in those 15 hours a problem occurred and, if possible, the level of detail should give metrics that would help identify problems at the earliest opportunity

NWT will help you to understand and combat the potential risks of data migration be it a data warehouse or a back office settlement system. Our data migration specialists will help you design and implement a successful migration and ensure that the checks and controls have been placed properly to deliver a seamless, effortless and secure migration. Our consultants will use a proven set of repeatable and predictable data migration processes and data migration tools to accelerate your migration.

Our fully-managed DMaaS service provides the expertise, tools and bandwidth you need, when you need it to help you get your migration project completed on time whilst minimising your project risks. If required, we can also provide ongoing support to maintain high availability and resolve uptime issues quickly.

For more information, please feel free to contact NWT’s Commercial Director Graeme Strain at Graeme.strain@newworldtech.io