What Is A Migration Plan and Why Do You Need One?

As you have probably figured out by now, there can be a lot of things to consider in preparing for and executing a data migration project with Content Migration Manager or NX Migration. The main key to a successful migration is to have a plan, a team responsible for carrying out the plan and an ability to measure progress against the plan. The migration plan should include considerations for the following key success areas:

1. The Migration Team
   
   
   
   • The migration team should have an overall project lead who makes sure that all stakeholders are consulted and assigns subject matter experts to each one of the key success areas. These subject matter experts should validate and test at every stage before production migration.
   
   
   
   


2. Audit of the SourceCAD Data
   
   
   
   • A Catia, SolidWorks, Creo or I-deas source data audit will be essential for determining data migration project scope. An audit will also aid in estimating the amount of time and effort required to migrate the data and make any necessary repairs.
   
   
   
   


3. Cleaning and Preparation of the SourceCAD Data
   
   
   
   • Inspect the quality and integrity of the source data and decide how much of the data needs to be migrated. All of the data doesn’t necessarily need to be migrated. You may want to consider migrating only latest Released and latest WIP or some other subset of the data.
     
     
     
     • Not all data needs to be modifiable after migration. You may find that a significant amount of the data will only need to be viewed and/or referenced, it will likely never be revised/modified (e.g., standard parts, purchased parts, older/legacy parts/assemblies/drawings, etc…)
     
     
     • The data needs to load “cleanly” into the sourceCAD system in order to be extracted and exported. Most likely, a significant amount of this data will be out-of-date.
     
     
     • A source data expert needs to select, sort, analyze for errors and consistency, clean and otherwise prepare the source data for migration.
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • Of course, a full understanding of the sourceCAD system and data is a necessary component for success in this key area.
   
   
   
   


4. Migration Execution and Validation of Results
   
   
   
   • Migration by product, project, etc. is highly recommended, especially for CAD data which tends to include many related items. Bulk data migration, where all data is fed to the migration process, is not a valid plan.
   
   
   • Migrating data from the sourceCAD system to NX is a process and only one CAD system should maintain ownership for each item. A process should be in place where this ownership is transferred from the sourceCAD system to NX. Lifecycle Status and Access Control in Teamcenter can be used to enforce this process.
   
   
   • Setup a test environment and execute the migration tools on sample data to get an estimate of migration time and resources required.
   
   
   • Training in CMM and the migration process is a necessary component for success in this key area.
   
   
   
   


5. Use of Migrated Data in NX and the Data Repair Process
   
   
   
   • Determine how the migrated data should function in NX and any repairs that should be made before moving forward. Will the data be for reference only or will it undergo active modification.
     
     
     
     • All parts that pass the CMM fidelity check are ready for use in NX. Decisions to repair feature issues can be made if and when a part is revised.
     
     
     • Decisions on any drawing repairs can also be made if and when a drawing is revised.
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • Work with migrated sample data to get an estimate of any required cleanup and repair time.
   
   
   • Training in NX and the migrated data repair process is a necessary component for success in this key area.
   
   
   
   

While data migration projects of significant size can be a challenge, they are absolutely necessary for progress on key initiatives like a migration from one or more sourceCAD systems to NX. These projects need to be given the right amount of preparation and time in terms of planning, source data preparation, migration execution/validation and any necessary repairs to the migrated data.

Next week on Migration Monday you will learn more details about migrating Catia data. For more information, or to get started migrating to NX with Content Migration Manager or NX Migration, please contact your local Siemens PLM Software representative.