Are there milestone plans for a combined data migration & data quality exercise?

Is there anywhere that I can find example milestone plans for a combined data migration & data quality exercise?

Interested to see approx timescales and order.

Comments

[John Platten]

I think the reason this particular question has failed to receive a rapid answer is that it comes very close to a request for methodology. Methodologies (recipies of repeatable, client independent project steps and their sequences) are a major selling tool DM professionals use to compete for work whether with larger consultantancies or as independent experts and are often tightly guarded. Consultants selling DQ as a service cannot pass a client specific plan because once delievered it is the client's IP and they are unlikely to pass you a generic plan as that is part of their resaleable methodology and USP. Permanent staff may be more willing to share and cross benchmark if you have experiences and advice to return.

Having said this, Dylan has posted some articles on an open standard methodology (search for "Mike 2.0", here on DM Pro), these may be of some use, and there may also be details of suggested steps in some DQ books.

If you can locate a methodology from one of these sources I am sure your plan will fall into place.

Sorry, not one of my most helpful answers.

John Platten
Vivamex Limited

www.vivamex.com
www.sapdatamigration.co.uk

[Dylan Jones (Founder)]

I think John makes a very valid, yet unfortunate, point here.

I suspect many in the community and certainly most of the expert panel have numerous plans that feature timescales, milestones and dependencies but of course they were created for specific client projects so cannot share them.

So what can we provide to help you complete your plan?

Well, the most important thing for me is that you understand what these activities on the plan mean and don't just use them as placeholders.

Also, no-one knows what your project plan really looks like.

We could give you 30-40 activities complete with dependencies but that is irrelevant until you've carried out what I call a "landscape analysis" activity or an early phase investigative piece of work.

Landscape analysis is like standing at the foot of a mountain.

You've got a good team of climbers with you and a clear target - to get to the top.

But there is a problem, mist is swirling around the mountain and the route isn't clear.

So what do you do?

Get out the guidebooks from other mountains that are roughly the same height and set off hoping you'll make it because all the other mountains you've climbed were fairly easy?

Instead I recommend you tackle the mountain in stages, learning as you go and planning the detailed route of the follow-on section.

Sometimes retreating, trying new routes, requesting more resources and better equipment, constantly reacting to the terrain in front of you.

Data migration (in my opinion) is exactly like this.

Your project plan is worthless until you've done some initial work to understand exactly what quality the data is, how fast the target can load data in a given period, what windows of opportunity the business will allow, what external projects require aligning, what pressures the target system will place on the legacy data, what systems can be decommissioned in which order, what style of migration is required (phased, big-bang, parallel etc) - the list goes on.

Landscape analysis effectively performs a "migration simulation" and works best in an iterative project delivery model.

I've used this concept in the past and discovered that the originally conceived strategy was flawed for example, the systems wouldn't actually migrate using conventional ETL techniques.

However, I accept that your business sponsors will still be crying out for a project plan right now so here is what I would suggest...

1) Check out the Data Migration Solution Offering in MIKE2.0, it's open source and you can use it all as long as you reference the source (http://mike2.openmethodology.org/wiki/Data_Migration_Solution_Offering), that gives you some of the core activities and dependencies

2) Get a copy of "Practical Data Migration" by John Morris, this gives you all the various activities and dependencies you seek but John will be the first to point out that you have to design your plan to your particular needs, however if you need to understand the flow of a typical migration, particularly from a project management perspective this is really valuable content

3) Check out our recent podcasts where John Morris explains his DQ rules approach and I talk a little more about landscape analysis, within those first two podcasts are some key milestones you will need on the project (http://www.datamigrationpro.com/?page=data_migration_coach)

4) Check out our Knowledge Index tool (http://www.datamigrationpro.com/?page=knowledgeindex) search for keywords such as "project", "projects", "roadmap" and browse other content too, you will get a better feel for what activities need to be in your project.

5) This table of contents from Practical Data Migration gives you some of the high level project activities you may need to incorporate in your project (http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.1332)

We will shortly be pulling together a master list of data migration activities based on research from members so I'll publish as soon as its complete, keep checking the site for details, if you're a member you will be notified.

Good luck, just contact me again if you are still in the dark of how to move forward.

Dylan Jones

Founder
www.DataMigrationPro.com
www.DataQualityPro.com