Best practices for migrating data

Overview

After you’ve defined which method is best to import or export your data, learn the most effective practices for organizing and then migrating the data.

1. Identify the data you want to migrate

Choose the data to migrate. For example, will you migrate all historic jobs or just the jobs completed in the last 12 months? Will you migrate all fields from your legacy system or will you migrate a subset?

2. Create templates for the data

  1. Create an excel template for each Object using a data export from Data import/export. You can also get pre-generated templates in CSV format when leveraging the Skedulo data import/export functionality. For more information, please see Import and update data.
  2. Since Objects have mandatory relationships which dictate the order of data migration, identify the required fields for each Object. For example, migrate Users first, then Regions, then Tags, then Resources, then Resource Tags.

3. Populate your templates

Review your data before populating it in the template. For example, load one record, check the results, then load all records.

4. Prepare the destination environment

​Consider creating custom fields to store any legacy ID information. For more information, please see Create custom fields.

Create custom fields to store data contained in non-standard fields in the legacy system. For example, if your old organization stored emergency contact details for your Resources, consider creating that custom field in the new environment too.

5. Validate the data

Use these techniques to validate your migration:

  • Spot check the data.
  • Review exception reports to see what data was or was not migrated.​