Field note
57 million records and a 10 day cutover
Migration is not an ETL task. It is a programme control problem with architecture, validation and decision evidence at its centre.
Cases & Insights
Field notes from enterprise data and platform change.
Short notes from complex delivery environments, written to surface reusable patterns rather than long-form case studies. Historical examples are attributed to Mikhail's prior enterprise delivery roles where relevant.
Field notes
Delivery patterns worth naming.
These notes help senior sponsors recognise the shape of a problem before it becomes a late-stage delivery issue.
Field note
Oracle HCM to ADP payroll integration
Interfaces are ownership contracts. Data flows, behaviours, exceptions and support routes must be explicit before go live.
Field note
Recovering governance in a delayed payroll programme
Governance only matters when it changes cadence, ownership, decisions and operational readiness.
Insights
Short principles for complex programmes.
Interfaces are ownership contracts
An interface is not complete when messages move. It is complete when behaviour, exceptions, reconciliation and support ownership are explicit.
Governance is not a policy document
Governance has value when it changes cadence, evidence, escalation and decision quality inside the delivery rhythm.
Go live confidence is an evidence problem
Confidence comes from visible readiness evidence across data, integration, operations and reporting, not from optimistic status language.
AI readiness is data readiness under a new name
New tooling does not remove the need for trusted definitions, lineage, ownership and quality controls.
Microservices do not remove integration responsibility
Bounded services still need clear API contracts, data ownership, observability and operational accountability.
Data migration tests the operating model
Migration exposes ownership gaps, process ambiguity and broken assumptions faster than most design workshops.
Seeing a similar pattern in flight?
Use the first conversation to separate facts, assumptions, decisions and evidence gaps.