ERP Data Migration 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the purpose of maintaining a 'data migration log' throughout an ERP implementation?
- To track employee attendance during the project
- To record every migration run, errors encountered, and actions taken for audit and troubleshooting purposes (Correct answer)
- To document software customization requests
- To log network performance metrics during cutover
Correct answer: To record every migration run, errors encountered, and actions taken for audit and troubleshooting purposes
A migration log provides a traceable record of each migration attempt, error, and resolution, supporting post-go-live troubleshooting and compliance audits.
Question 2: In ERP data migration, why is it critical to validate 'referential integrity' in the migrated data?
- To ensure user passwords meet complexity requirements
- To confirm that relationships between related records (e.g., invoices linked to customers) are intact (Correct answer)
- To verify that all ERP modules are licensed
- To check that system backups completed successfully
Correct answer: To confirm that relationships between related records (e.g., invoices linked to customers) are intact
Referential integrity ensures that foreign key relationships between tables (like an invoice pointing to a valid customer ID) are preserved, preventing orphaned records that break ERP processes.
Question 3: What is a 'cutover checklist' used for during ERP data migration?
- Tracking which users completed training
- Ensuring every required migration step is completed in the correct sequence during the go-live weekend (Correct answer)
- Listing software bugs found during testing
- Documenting future enhancement requests
Correct answer: Ensuring every required migration step is completed in the correct sequence during the go-live weekend
A cutover checklist provides a step-by-step, time-stamped task list executed during the live migration to ensure nothing is missed and to track progress against the plan.
Question 4: Which scenario BEST illustrates a 'data transformation' step in ERP migration?
- Copying a file from one server to another
- Converting a legacy date format (YYYYMMDD) to the ERP's required format (MM/DD/YYYY) (Correct answer)
- Generating a report on data volumes
- Deleting duplicate records in the staging table
Correct answer: Converting a legacy date format (YYYYMMDD) to the ERP's required format (MM/DD/YYYY)
Data transformation converts source data formats, structures, or values into the formats required by the target ERP system as part of the ETL process.
Question 5: Why might an organization choose NOT to migrate all historical transactions into a new ERP system?
- Historical data is always inaccurate and unreliable
- Migration of full history is too costly and time-consuming, and only opening balances are needed for operations (Correct answer)
- The ERP vendor prohibits importing historical data
- Historical transactions cannot be stored in modern ERP databases
Correct answer: Migration of full history is too costly and time-consuming, and only opening balances are needed for operations
Migrating years of full transaction history is expensive and often unnecessary; organizations typically migrate opening balances and archive detailed history for compliance access separately.
Question 6: What is the main reason ERP data migration projects frequently exceed their original budget?
- ERP vendors raise licensing fees mid-project
- Data quality issues discovered during migration require unplanned cleansing effort (Correct answer)
- Hardware costs are consistently underestimated
- End users reject the new system and require extra training
Correct answer: Data quality issues discovered during migration require unplanned cleansing effort
Poor source data quality—with duplicates, missing values, and inconsistencies—is the most common cause of migration budget overruns because cleansing takes significantly more effort than anticipated.
Question 7: What is the purpose of a 'rollback plan' in ERP data migration?
- A plan to gradually train users over multiple months
- A documented process to revert to the legacy system if the migration fails at cutover (Correct answer)
- A schedule for decommissioning old hardware
- A plan for rolling out new ERP modules after go-live
Correct answer: A documented process to revert to the legacy system if the migration fails at cutover
A rollback plan defines the steps to restore the legacy system to operational status if critical issues prevent the new ERP from functioning correctly at go-live.
ERP Data Migration 5
What is the purpose of maintaining a 'data migration log' throughout an ERP implementation?