Mr. Wolf is a Problem Solver in the movie Pulp Fiction. His task  was to solve the big mess left after a gun fired accidentally in a  car.

The Data Migration Expert is also a problem solver. His task is to solve the big mess between application development, customer requirements, verification – integration, data owners and domain experts, to find an optimal quality of data which will be loaded into the target system, and to find an optimal concept how to achieve the cut-over.

At the present time am looking for data migration projects in the European market. I see lot of requirements what the right candidate must own in his experience history.

What importance is attached for a data migration project leader ?

In the most of the cases you should know the target system, and you must have more years experience. Surprisingly the source system is rarely a requirement. In addition

• the industry environment (insurance, healthcare, etc.)
• the target database
• in most cases he must know the programming language of the application or migration tool.

These are all as essential requirements to get into a data migration project.

You have (only) an advantage if you know the Data Migration Methodology and have experience in a previous project.

These requirements are very technical-oriented, and they did not show to a successful migration delivery. If the requirements for data migration project leader are focusing only to the technical details, then the project can eventually end with a rescue mission.

What should be important for a data migration project candidate?

It is a good idea to know the target system and the business cases of the target system, as mentioned in the most of the project announcements.

Knowing the business cases not equal knowing the workflows within the enterprise using the particular business case. To find an optimal way to execute a smooth migration you have to be clear about what the processes in the enterprise are and how do they connect with each other. If you see the single business cases, you won’t understand the whole picture which can lead to mistakes.

My advice for the leader of a migration project: look at the big picture, see the whole system, dive deep into the processes.

My advice to the recruiters: knowing the programming language of the migration tool is not enough, even knowing the the functionality of the target database is not enough. To know the target system, how does it works, what are the use cases, is a little better. An optimal choice is to find a person, who is able to see how to match the new target system into the workflows of the enterprise during the migration steps. Someone, who does not forget to adapt the legacy system intelligence into the intelligence of the new target system. Good luck in finding this skill set!