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
Available from:
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!
