Hello Tarra,
Stated below are my thoughts from migrating applications and DBs - legacy to next gen apps / cloud migration.
Gain insight into the existing processes with the appropriate technique that you deem right. It could range from conducting interviews to analysing current-state documented processes or shadowing users performing the processes so that you don’t miss out on any task as insignificant as that may be to the user or any keystroke that the user may be employing to accomplish the task. These techniques may entail time and effort; however, these have been employed at large and are time-tested. As an alternative, you could also go for process mining software which could save you time and effort; however, it would come at a cost.
Once, you have identified your current-state processes / tasks, I would delve into –
- Identifying bottlenecks
- Removing redundant processes
- Simplifying processes
From here on, I would embark on the task of creating a future-state process map which would help you identify the processes that could be potential candidates for automation. At this stage, you might even find gaps that your new solution may not be able to cater to. Identifying gaps would present you an opportunity to score some brownie points with your business stakeholders.
Next, would be the testing phase. Depending on your circumstances and the bandwidth that you have prior to go-live, you could also have a parallel run of your new solution and existing one. This would help you compare and evaluate the results. Parallel run gives you an opportunity to iron out last minute discrepancies, if any and sets the stage for a successful cut-over.
It is of paramount importance to involve your business stakeholders at each stage of your migration for verification and validation purposes, be it during interviews, shadowing, documenting current and future state process maps or mapping processes to the new solution or during testing or parallel run.
Stated above is just a high-level summary of my personal experiences from a few different projects that I have worked on. Hope this helps.
Kind Regards,
Hims