"Practical Data Migration" gives you techniques and strategies for ensuring that your data migration project achieves maximum returns for your company. This book provides a structured approach to data migration enabling you to get the right data, in the right place, at the right time. Every new computer system needs start up data before it can be put into operation and realize the benefits implicit in new software. The success of every company merger, de-merger or restructuring relies on the success of merging or dividing data. Often, data migration goes wrong - as recently highlighted by the media in organizations as crucial as the NHS, The Inland Revenue, and the Department of Work and Pensions. To realize return on investment, data loaded at 'go live' should be the best available; to maximize the utility of the novel features of a new computer system data should also be the most appropriate obtainable. There has been no published method for finding and re-processing data in legacy systems - until now. "Practical Data Migration" provides tried and tested approaches, strategies and techniques for ensuring your data migration project goes smoothly with minimal disruption to your organization. "Practical Data Migration" is not slanted towards any particular operating system, target system, data migration tool or industry. It is a business facing approach that will work, and has worked, in any business environment. This is a practical guide to running successful data migration projects containing original methods, an example project as a model of best practice and ideas on rescuing data migration projects that have gone wrong. "Practical Data Migration" contains a wealth of real life examples and hints that have been shown to work in practice. It explains how to maximize the benefits of data migration, both as part of a new system implementation and as a key tool in business merger and de-merger activities. It blends real life experiences, with cutting edge developments from the Rapid Application Development arena, as well as more traditional metadata modelling concepts, and offers clear definitions of commonly used jargon that surrounds the subject. "Practical Data Migration" debunks the mysteries that surround this subject, providing a template for judging the performance of in-house or brought in skills. It encourages adaptation to local cultural or environmental constraints, but provides a model of best practice that should be the starting point for their project specific implementation of the method. For the IT practitioner who has been given responsibility for managing a data migration project, it provides techniques well-founded in practice, a host of hints and tips and anecdotes to reassure that the author has "been there, done that".