Planning A Successful Cognos Migration

  By Kathie Davis - Envisn, Inc.
This BLOG will focus on planning and executing a Cognos BI migration between versions. Most of these recommendations are broad enough to be considered for all types of migrations. In approaching a Cognos migration there are three 3 different techniques that are usually considered.

The first method is what I refer to as “Lift and Shift” aka throw it over the wall and hope it works. The second method is starting over, this method has a bit of a “I know what is it best for you” undertone. This typically comes about when the implementers are not part of the day to day operations and have little to no experience in the legacy application. The last method the more rational approach is aptly named the hybrid approach. This method falls right in the middle of lift and shift and starting over. The hybrid method will result in an efficient, well designed and executed migration.

Let’s take a closer look at the three methods:

• First method “Lift and Shift”.
  
  
  • Lack of information to understand the current implementation.
  • No tools to be able to help you understand the legacy environment.
  • You might be a little afraid of what might happen if you did make changes or eliminate content.

This approach assumes that your BI Consumers need all the reporting replicated from the legacy environment into the new environment. This will not take into consideration whether or not content has any future value or has become obsolete over time. This lacks good judgment. This is analogous to buying a new house, planning the big move, and then moving everything from one location to the other. I mean everything! This means you don’t clean out the garage, everything in the attic gets packed, and of course and why not move the garbage too. You never know what you might find in there of use!

The real question is, why would you ever want to do this?

This approach can work, my concern is that you are implementing an old design on a new platform. At best you will be able to get original implementation to run. However it will be force fit and more than likely not a very good fit.

• Second method starting over.
  
  
  • Requires unnecessary time and resources to re-invent the wheel.
  • The discovery phase still needs to happen and you really do need to know what is going on in the legacy environment. This cannot be avoided.
  • Time + Money + Effort = 0 ROI

Starting over is not a cost effective decision either. This choice is also based on the lack of information being available to make a well thought out Cognos migration. I also see this kind of migration play out in environments where the original administration support staff is not part of the new implementation team. The essence of what needs to be implemented is within the current environment. By choosing to recreate the world can impact the time line for the implementation and risk user acceptance. It is a lot harder to get your consumers to buy into something that is totally foreign to them.

• Third method “hybrid” – a mindful approach
  
  
  • Scoping phase first this includes usage metrics and metadata review for object moving forward.
  • Establishment of dedicated resources (The optimum team should have experience in the existing solution combined with resources which are well trained in the target platform).
  • Prepare for a POC by selecting a representative group of reports. (Work out the kinks before you finalize the plan with a small set of reports).
  • Decide on the PLAN. DO not have false starts this will not only extend your project but it will also send a signal about the perceived importance of the project.
  • Agreed on a timeline have a firm begin and end date.
  • Dedicated resources, assigned responsibilities, and success criteria
  • This process reflects the minimal handling of all objects that will be migrated.
  • Learning from the POC phase will result in a consistency during the migration.
  • Having a well rounded team will result in continuity of resources.
  • Overall this approach will reduce TIME, cost less MONEY and require less effort.

Why carry the old baggage and why throw away years of work. The plan is to migrate only the content that is truly used and leave the garbage behind. In this approach you will need to document the content metadata for analysis purposes. You will also need to gather usage statistics for content objects going back at least 3-6 months. Use these two essential pieces of information to scope out the migration.

Why this is a good idea.

• This process reflects the minimal handling of all objects that will be migrated.
• Learning from the POC phase will result in a consistency during the migration.
• Having a well rounded team will result in continuity of resources.
• Overall this approach will reduce TIME, cost less MONEY and require less effort.

Committed resources and a well thought out approach will result in success. You will be done before you know it!

© 2010 - Envisn, Inc.: Cognos Migration Tools – All rights reserved