With the rapid development of business IT, it becomes increasingly necessary to update versions, move old applications to another server, and migrate existing data. Many errors may arise in connection with the migration, and in order to minimize these errors, it is necessary to develop a suitable testing strategy. In this article, we present the most important steps that are essential for successful migration testing.
Data migration testing is a verification process of migrating a legacy system to a new system with minimal disruption, data integrity and no data loss, while ensuring that all specified functional and non-functional aspects of the application are fulfilled.
The migration test strategy consists of easily identifiable and separable points. Its purpose is to minimize errors and risks arising from the migration, as well as to perform migration testing efficiently.
Let's take a look at the most important activities you need to plan for successful migration testing:
1. Creation of a team of experts
Building a team of testers with the right expertise and experience is a key step in executing a successful migration project. If there is potential tester knowledge in-house that is sufficient to manage a complex migration project, then an in-house solution is recommended, otherwise the involvement of external testing experts will lead to the goal.
2. Business risk analysis, error analysis
The purpose of the business risk analysis is to ensure that the transition does not hinder the current course of business. Test scenarios should also include identification of potential risks associated with the migration, as well as tests designed around errors. It is also worth checking the implementation of risk mitigation measures. The goal is to uncover all possible errors in advance so that they do not cause disturbances in the operation of the migrated system later on.
3. Analysis of the scope of migration
In the third step, the identification of when and what would be necessary to test for a successful data migration is underway.
4. Determining the appropriate testing tool for the migration
In the next step, you must select the testing tool you want to use for data migration. With the help of the ACE test automation tool developed by ProofIT and the PeACE performance testing and monitoring platform, the company has at its disposal the set of tools required for data migration and for comparing source and target data.
5. Determination of the appropriate test environment required for migration
A separate test environment should be defined to test the environments before and after the migration and to perform the necessary checks.
6. Preparation and review of the migration test specification document
The migration test specification document contains, among other things, the testing areas, testing methods (automatic, manual), testing methodology (black box, white box testing technique), number of testing cycles, testing schedule.
7. Start the migrated system
The last step is the live commissioning of the migrated system, followed by the analysis of the data.
The above steps provide a framework for further tasks, these points must of course always be planned and implemented in detail, tailored to the characteristics of the given company, project, data and IT system. If all these conditions are met, the result will not fail, successful data migration testing is guaranteed.
