Data migration for small teams

Teams tend to reach for this after something has already gone wrong. Most advice about data migration assumes a team that does not exist at your size. Here is the version that does not.

Most data problems are ownership problems that turned into technical ones. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

What to keep

Migrations fail on the data nobody knew existed. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

What to drop

Process that exists to coordinate ten people is overhead when there are two of you. Getting it slightly wrong is survivable. Ignoring it entirely is not.

What good looks like

Always have a documented way back. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

What this looks like day to day

Data outlives the applications built on top of it, which is why the model deserves more thought than the screens. Three things worth confirming about data migration before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Always have a documented way back — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

The point is not perfection, it is knowing which of these you have consciously chosen to skip.