💃 Breaking down that data migration🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! The 💃 ChaCha 🕺 knows that data migrations can bring even the most seasoned Salesforce professionals to their knees. But, we also know that when we encounter a big problem, our chances for success increase if we break down that problem into smaller, more manageable ones. ⛏️⛏️ That’s what today is all about - don’t freak out over that data migration. Embrace it with these 7 steps! 💪

Agenda for today includes

• Breaking down that data migration

• Daily Principle

• All the Memes

Breaking down that data migration

There are tons of tools you can use for a migration. Let’s assume here that we’re going to get raw data, put it into an Excel sheet, then import via the Data Loader app. 😵‍💫 

I’ve personally led migrations from on-prem MS SQL Server databases, competitor CRM’s, “old” Salesforce instance into “new” Salesforce instance, and others. I’ve done this using only an ETL tool, importing through Data Loader, or custom-built apps using the Bulk API. No matter the complexity or toolset these steps hold up.

🔍 Identify

First step - 🆔 the data you really need to move. You may get lucky and only need to populate a handful of SObjects! 🤘 Find out what you’re dealing with first. Determine the current state of the data and how you’re going to use it in the new org. 🤔 

📐 Template

Measure twice, cut once. 📏 Creating a template for each dataset will help you visualize & define the queries that will need be written to fetch the data in the first place. 📊 Include all the required field & relationships. Pay attention to historical data points like a created by/date and things like record types or picklist values. 🛎️

🧼 Cleanse

This part can be tedious. 😔 Ultimately you want to prepare the data in a way that will support a clean import. Look for duplicate records, wrong data, or data that’s straight up missing. Watch out for older data. 👀 Many times there may be some extra work around old data. Be aware of things like leading zeros or case-sensitivity, too. 🧠 

🫗 Populate

Take this raw data and populate your template(s) with it now. 📐 Spend some time organizing it. Think of it as a dry run! 💪 This will help make sure you didn’t miss anything in your template and allow you to catch any issues before the actual migration. 💯 

🔪 Prepare

Get into the destination org and prep it for use/testing. 🧑‍🏭 I’m a fan of adding ID values from the legacy system(s) as External Id’s in Salesforce. This improves your data, helps you troubleshoot issues, and makes future updates smoother. 🖥️ 

🏃 Migrate

Alright, here we go! Execute the migration. 🤓 Be sure you have already turned off all the automations you can - workflows, triggers, sharing recalculations, etc.. Do this against a Sandbox first! 🦺 

✅ Validate

After the migration is complete run tests to make sure the migration was successful. 🧪 Perform record count matches (template vs new org), spot-check for data validations, execute critical processes. 💥 

Daily Principle

and now....Your Daily Memes