Five ways to engage the bosses during a data migration project

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When migrating data, the backing of senior business leaders will improve the chances of a project going smoothly and ensure that you have the resources you need.  The key is to remember that the purpose of the migration is to make the overall business more effective and efficient, and to ensure that this is communicated properly.

Here are five ways to encourage the endorsement of senior staff.

1. Align the project with business priorities

The project results should reflect the areas on which business leaders tend to focus.  These are predominantly revenue and cost.  Senior managers don’t always want to spend the budget (and staff resources) required for an effective migration, so they need to be convinced that real, monetary gain lies in project success.

2. Manage expectations

Be honest about how long the project is going to take and what will be asked of management along the way.  Make it easy for senior managers to delegate by ensuring regular communication and sign-off stages along the way.  In this way, business leaders feel in control without resorting to micro-management.

3. Link the benefits to specific business issues

Show how current challenges within the business will be helped by the data migration project.  Illustrate how you are following a methodology that will not only satisfy the data requirements of the new system, but also the business requirements for the new data within the system.  And talk in terminology that management can understand!

4. Promote best practice

Great processes can reflect positively on a company’s senior management.  Show in the scoping and strategy documents at the outset how the migration process uses best practice and even, where applicable, accreditations.  Best practice can tend to fade during a project as time constraints loom, so make sure that the right processes are followed all the way through.  Take a look at our methodology to get ideas on best practice implementation.

5. Build in short and long-term gains

Senior business leaders are likely to want to see short-term value added to their bottom line after making an investment in data migration.  Often, data migration projects reveal their value over time, so make sure you build in some quick wins to satisfy business objectives.

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