I’m reflecting on the Exchange migration discussed in the February 2014 issue of PM Network, “Migratory Patterns.” We implemented our own Exchange migration in 2012. Our user base was less than 500, so by comparison, it was relatively easy. We were able to use the traditional PMI waterfall model and it worked very well. Mecklenburg county migrated almost 10,000 machines and devices from Exchange 2003 to MS Office 365. An impressive feat that didn’t follow the usual track.
This excellent article discusses some key components that will help you in your next implementation project. First, they abandoned the waterfall model in order to compress the timeline. Instead, the PM instituted an Agile approach. This allowed the team to run migration every night, Monday’s through Thursdays.
Planning and documentation ahead of time were keys to success once implementation started. Consider a centralized storage of data such as a Google Docs spreadsheet.
One other key factor was having a triage team available immediately after the migration to answer questions and ensure the users had made a smooth transition.
In our own migration in 2012, we conducted training classes using material and video from Lynda.com. We then recorded those sessions and made them available online to any who had missed the webex and in-person training.
The next time you have a migration to plan, don’t be so quick to use only one staid methodology if your project would benefit from an alternate method.