Workflow: Migration Planning

Document your source database and plan a safe migration to a new system.

Step 1-2: Analyze Source

1. Generate Documentation

Run full documentation, EDA (quality baseline), and Business Insights (criticality analysis).

2. Analyze State

Assess technical metrics (rows, types, indexes), data quality (completeness, duplicates), and business structure.

Step 3: Identify Challenges

Data Quality Issues

Issue: orders.customer_id has 234 orphaned records
Impact: Need customer data cleanup before migration
Action: Resolve orphaned records or delete

Schema Differences

Challenge: Source uses VARCHAR(MAX), target requires fixed lengths
Impact: Need to determine appropriate VARCHAR sizes
Action: Analyze max lengths from EDA

Step 4-5: Mapping & Planning

Migration Sequence

  1. Reference Data: Products, Categories, Static lookups
  2. Master Data: Customers, Suppliers, Employees
  3. Transactional Data: Orders, Payments, Shipments
  4. Historical Data: Logs, Archives, Audit Trails

Mapping Document Example

Source: customers
Target: Customer
Transform:
  - customer_id → CustomerId (INT → BIGINT)
  - email → EmailAddress (VARCHAR → VARCHAR)
  - phone → PhoneNumber (Standardize format)
Dependencies: Must migrate before orders

Step 6: Validation

After migration, generate documentation for the target database and compare:

  • Source vs Target Documentation comparison
  • Verify all data migrated correctly (Row counts)
  • Check relationship integrity
  • Run EDA to ensure data quality is maintained

Success Criteria

  • Complete source documentation
  • Migration challenges identified
  • Migration sequence planned
  • Mapping document created
  • Target validation plan ready