During a migration weekend (yeah because most of them happen when business is not working!) you should never forget the issue tracker, as a key document that will keep you company during the long hours ahead.
Issues are logged by the migration project manager(s) and managed by an issue manager, who should be part of the migration execution team, actively working to address and resolve issues as they pop in the tracker.
Below are the key fields I recommend to have in your tracker:
- Issue ID # (make sure they are unique and sequential!)
- Description
- Type (e.g. DNS, Firewall, SW, Access, etc)
- Server Name (if any affected)
- Country / Location affected
- Details
- Priority
- Assigned to
- Status (Open, Resolved, Closed)
- Resolution Details & Date
- Reported By Who and When
Resolution details and how the problem was fixed is a crucial one, as this will feed into your Lesson Learnt, right after the migration is finished. It would be a big waste not recording resolution details, as they can highlight challenges and intrinsic problems, which next time could be addressed in advance!