Avoiding 4 Critical Data Migration Pitfalls You Can’t Afford to Ignore

April 12, 2023

Michael Wirth

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Whether you're migrating to Salesforce from a legacy system or from an old Salesforce org to a new platform, cloud migration is a foundational shift that can either drive transformation or derail business operations. Unfortunately, many teams fall victim to common errors during system migration, often due to overlooked details or rushed planning.

Understanding the most frequent data migration pitfalls and actively preparing for them can significantly reduce project delays, cost overruns, and critical failures. Let’s dive into the risks in data migration and how to safeguard your organization against them.

1. Lack of Planning and Management

One of the most critical risks of data migration is inadequate planning. Organizations often set ambitious deadlines without fully understanding the scope, which leads to rushed work, overlapping dependencies, and critical gaps.

Without clear ownership, realistic timelines, and a structured approach, teams end up making reactive decisions. These short-term workarounds often snowball into long-term issues, such as failed validations, inaccessible records, and compliance violations.

Avoid this by:

Defining crystal-clear objectives and outcomes

Identifying all data sources and dependencies early

Building a flexible timeline that includes contingency buffers

Mapping legacy data structures to target systems in advance

Assigning responsibilities and accountabilities from the start

This is a small price to be paid upfront in order to save a lot of pain and cost later in the project.

2. Improvising Tools on the Fly

Another common error during a migration is relying on ad hoc tools or manually created scripts that do not stand the test of scalable enterprise migration. These tools can be error-prone, lack audit trails, and may even vary between team members.

Teams risk losing track of script and file versions often spread across multiple local installations. This can lead to data corruption, loss, leakage, and inconsistencies. Project delays and increased costs are just some of the potential consequences.

Avoid this by:

Using enterprise-grade, tested migration platforms

Automating repetitive data manipulation tasks

Leveraging AI consistently, embedded in centralized tooling

Keeping track of every change for transparency and traceability

Running checks and validations before deployment

3. Insufficient Testing

Perhaps the deadliest mistake is skipping robust testing. Teams eager to hit deadlines often cut corners by testing only a fraction of the data or worse, skipping tests altogether.

Not all records may be accepted by the production instance, and complications can cause delays. More critically, records might be incorrectly imported, mixed up or exposed to unauthorized user groups. This can frustrate users and reduce productivity when expected data is missing or inaccurate in the new application. These issues not only affect operations but can also trigger compliance and security incidents.

Avoid this by:

Creating multiple test migrations with defined datasets

Validating permissions, data integrity, and completeness

Performing User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with real users

Comparing record counts and key fields before and after migration

Running regression tests to confirm business logic compatibility

4. Poor Stakeholder Communication

Even with the right tools and plans, risks in data migration can still emerge if communication breaks down between IT and business teams. Stakeholders often have day jobs and may not be aware of the time-sensitive decisions they need to make.

Avoid this by:

Scheduling regular syncs with stakeholders

Clearly outlining decision timelines and required inputs

Using non-technical language to explain technical decisions

Providing visual dashboards or migration summaries

Offering just-in-time education to business users

Keeping everyone aligned makes the difference between resistance and readiness. ‍

Secure Your Next Migration with conemis

conemis offers a smarter, safer path forward when it comes to avoiding common errors during migration of data. With a cloud-native, no-code migration platform designed to eliminate manual errors, streamline testing, and centralize governance, conemis helps enterprises confidently manage even the most complex transformations.