Sunday 1 November 2015

Book Review: Project Management for Data Conversions and Data Migrations

 
Book Review: Project Management for Data Conversions and Data Migrations
A data conversion methodology and to converting data for mission critical applications
Charles R Scott, Author House, Bloomington Indiana, 2004, 99 Pages, 18 Chapters + Appendices, ISBN10: 14184 51265, ISBN13: 878 14184 52162
 
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This book provides a great route map and checklist for data migration. I regularly use it as a reference when planning new projects to ensure I haven’t missed anything. The chapters are broken down into work packages familiar to us project managers. To me it is designed as a reference source rather than a book you would pick up and read. Don’t be lulled by the regular and consistent structure of each work package in the book, some are more difficult and contain more risk than others. I always start the data migration work-stream within a few days of project inception. Experience, over many years, has taught me that it is always a long lead time work package. The migrated data needs to be ready for transactional testing when user acceptance is taking place. Another cautionary note is on the subject of data cleansing, the book has a chapter on the topic. On the page it appears simple but experience has imparted a wariness of this work package, nevertheless the book covers the data cleansing bases. The book falls short in one area, not content, but print quality the diagrams are not prominently printed with insufficient font and line weight or thickness to be clear. Also the diagrams would be better printed in landscape rather than portrait format. In the appendices the author offers some useful data migration project management templates and a skeleton work breakdown structure. A useful addition to the project manager’s reference bookshelf.
Happy implementing!

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