Consider and include recordkeeping obligations, risks, standards and activities when planning for a migration.
The migration should not be irreversible. Establish and test a roll-back strategy in case problems arise. This allows records to remain protected and business processes can be resumed with the old system until another migration is attempted.
You will need to ensure that the new system is capable of managing the records appropriately. Find out what technology requirements and functionality you need to help choose and plan for a new system.
You also need to plan for the potential impact on staff and the business (e.g. recordkeeping activities such as capturing or access to records).
Determine what is to be migrated
Determine what you need to migrate based on your agency's requirements and the functionality of the new system.
Records
Identify which records are active and inactive, how long they must be kept and which are due for destruction.
You will need to migrate all active records and any control records used to track and manage both physical and digital records.
If necessary, inactive records can be:
- migrated to the new system
- managed in the existing system until they can be lawfully destroyed
- exported to another form of digital storage media (find out the options for preserving digital records).
Note: How records are managed will depend on your agency's requirements.
Consider destroying any digital records due for destruction beforehand to reduce the number of records that need to be migrated–make sure records metadata and information about the disposal of records is kept and migrated to the new system.
Any records that are encrypted should be decrypted before migration.
If performing a system migration, you will need to do an analysis of the system to determine what records it contains. Look at the business processes the system supports and the types of data captured. Process mapping may help identify relationships between records, business processes and stakeholders.
Metadata
You must migrate:
- all recordkeeping metadata for records being migrated
- any metadata and control records for physical records
- metadata and information about records that are not being migrated (e.g. inactive or legacy records, disposal information of records already destroyed or transferred)
- any other associated metadata
- contextual or structural information that enables the record to be accessible and meaningful
- connections between this information and the records
- any other information crucial to the meaning of the records.
Use the Queensland recordkeeping metadata standard and guideline (PDF, 1.4 MB)
(QRKMS) to identify the required metadata, and the links that must be maintained.
Ensure connections remain to any metadata and contextual information outside the system.
Make sure that information remains accurate and unchanged post-migration, including:
- any dates used for recordkeeping actions (e.g. disposal trigger, date created)
- disposal of the records.
Test the migration
Pre-migration testing should be done in a test-environment/system and post-migration in the live-environment/system.
You will need to check:
- for potential issues
- that records will remain complete and reliable post-migration
- that all required information and metadata can and will be migrated successfully.
Testing should be based on your risk assessment to ensure risks are minimised.