Free Resource
Dynamics 365 CRM Migration Readiness Checklist
Before you begin your Dynamics 365 migration, use this checklist to identify gaps, reduce risk and ensure your project is set up for a clean go-live. Developed from real implementation experience across Australian organisations.
Work through all six areas. If you can’t answer confidently in any section, you have found your risk area.
1. Data Quality & Source Assessment
The quality of what you migrate determines the quality of what you go live with. Poor source data is the single biggest cause of migration delays and post-go-live remediation.
- Completed a structured data quality analysis (completeness, accuracy, consistency, uniqueness)
- Identified and documented all source data systems (CRM, spreadsheets, ERP, databases)
- Established record counts per entity (accounts, contacts, leads, cases, opportunities)
- Identified duplicate rate per entity and agreed deduplication strategy
- Confirmed which records won’t be migrated (historical, test, archived)
- Assessed free-text fields for unstructured data that can’t be directly migrated
- Data quality assessment signed off by business stakeholders (not just IT)
2. Field Mapping & Transformation Rules
Every source field needs a defined destination, or a documented decision not to migrate it. Undocumented transformations become the rework items discovered in testing.
- Field mapping document created for each entity in scope
- All picklist / dropdown values mapped between source and target
- Date format conversions documented and tested
- Lookup and relationship field mappings agreed (e.g. account–contact associations)
- Mandatory fields in target system identified; source gaps addressed
- Free-text to structured field transformations defined and documented
- Field mapping document reviewed and signed off by both technical and business stakeholders
3. Data Ownership & Governance
Data migration requires business ownership, not just technical execution. If nobody owns the data, nobody is accountable for the quality of what is migrated.
- Named data owner assigned for each entity in scope (accounts, contacts, cases, etc.)
- Data cleansing responsibilities allocated to specific business owners
- Process defined for resolving data quality issues discovered during assessment
- Retention policy confirmed, what historical data must be kept vs. archived
- Privacy and compliance review completed for PII data in scope
- Approval process defined for migration scope changes
4. Migration Design & Technical Readiness
Technical migration architecture must be designed before build begins. Decisions made late in the migration process are more expensive to change.
- Migration tool selected and validated against your source and target systems
- Migration architecture reviewed by a Dynamics 365 technical architect
- Data volume and migration window assessed, batch size and run time estimated
- Error handling approach defined, what happens to records that fail validation
- Rollback plan documented, what if migration is aborted mid-run
- Target environment configuration confirmed (entities, fields, views) before migration build
- Integration dependencies identified, which integrations must be suspended during migration
5. Test Migration Strategy
A single production migration run with no prior testing is the highest-risk approach. Structured test runs catch problems when they are cheap to fix.
- Test migration plan documented with at least two full test runs planned
- First test run scheduled during design phase to validate approach and identify structural issues
- Second test run scheduled close to go-live to confirm fixes and validate reconciliation
- Reconciliation checks defined, how you confirm migrated record counts and values are correct
- UAT process defined for business validation of migrated data
- Performance testing completed, migration run time acceptable within go-live window
- Post-migration data validation checklist prepared and assigned to business owners
6. Go-live Readiness & Post-migration
The migration doesn’t end at go-live. Post-migration support and validation are as important as the migration run itself.
- Go-live migration run scheduled with sufficient lead time for final data freeze
- Data freeze date confirmed, when source system data locks for final migration extract
- Cutover plan documented, sequence of steps from data freeze to go-live
- Hypercare support plan in place for first two weeks post go-live
- Legacy system access plan, how long will source system remain accessible after go-live
- Post-migration cleanup tasks assigned (duplicate review, data enrichment, record validation)
- Lessons learned review scheduled for four weeks post go-live
Not confident in all areas?
BODVE offers a structured Migration Readiness Assessment for organisations approaching a Dynamics 365 implementation. We work through data quality, field mapping, governance and migration architecture before your project begins, so problems are found early, not at go-live.