Mergers, acquisitions, divestures, or an old and outdated system – inevitably, as a system owner, you will need to move data from one application to another. A data migration is a critical project and, without careful planning and execution, could result in loss of data integrity or a failed system acceptance.

Here are 5 key steps to help you mitigate the risks and navigate a successful data migration:

1. Develop a data migration strategy:

There are multiple options for your migration, so it’s important to understand what business goals the migration will facilitate. Choosing the wrong option could mean unacceptable system downtime and cause more business disruption than is necessary.

2. Create a plan for your data:

Data migration projects are complex, so it pays to spend time understanding the nature and scope of the data that needs to be migrated: Where is it coming from? Where is it going to? What are the data structures of both systems? What is reasonable and achievable given all this information? When you have the answers to these questions, you can develop a realistic project plan and set business expectations for the timing and scope.

3. Migrate to a test environment:

Before you go all in, take the time to create a test environment and verify that your migration strategy will work. Run your data through the complete migration process: extract, transform, clean (if needed), and load it into the test environment. Prepare to do this a few times until the results are consistent and reliable.

4. Follow a validation process:

A migration validation process ensures that the process steps are repeatable and consistently result in the expected outcome. Ideally, your validation process begins pre-migration (during the planning step), and it naturally concludes with verification of the quality and quantity of the data in your target system.

5. Load the data into the production environment:

If you’ve successfully followed these steps, the final move of the data from the test to the production environment should be a painless one. Perform your final validation, then celebrate!

In today’s growing global environment, data migrations are unavoidable, complex, and fraught with risk; but following this roadmap will reduce the risks, increase the quality of your outcomes, and set you on the path to success.