# Data Migration Validation Plan and Checklist

Version 1.0 | CSVtoCSA practitioner template | Updated 12 September 2026

## Purpose

Plan and verify migration scope, mapping, transformation, reconciliation, exceptions, records, signatures, relationships, access, and retrieval.

## When to use

Before migration execution, cutover, archive, or source-system retirement.

## Instructions

- Define the specific system, service, change, population, and intended use.
- Complete each field from available records and accountable interviews; record unknowns rather than guessing.
- Link conclusions to affected GxP functions, failure scenarios, controls, evidence, and approval.
- Adapt the structure to the organization’s approved procedures and document-control process.

## Blank template

1. Scope and inventory

   Response: 

2. Source and target

   Response: 

3. Data mapping and transformation

   Response: 

4. Cleansing rules and approvals

   Response: 

5. Migration tools and environments

   Response: 

6. Reconciliation and sampling

   Response: 

7. Exceptions and deviations

   Response: 

8. Attachments, metadata, and relationships

   Response: 

9. Audit trail and electronic signatures

   Response: 

10. Retention, access, and retrieval

   Response: 

11. Cutover, rollback, and source freeze

   Response: 

12. Migration summary and approval

   Response: 

## Completed fictional example

The example below is teaching material, not an executed or approved validation record.

1. Scope and inventory

   Fictional ten-year eQMS CAPA population

2. Source and target

   Legacy eQMS to cloud eQMS

3. Data mapping and transformation

   Immutable record, attachment, user, and relationship IDs mapped

4. Cleansing rules and approvals

   No content cleansing; obsolete usernames mapped through approved identity table

5. Migration tools and environments

   Controlled extraction and loading scripts in qualified migration environment

6. Reconciliation and sampling

   Counts and totals plus full critical relationship check and risk-based retrieval sample

7. Exceptions and deviations

   Duplicate attachment filenames initially mislinked; key strategy corrected

8. Attachments, metadata, and relationships

   CAPA, attachments, approvals, and linked changes retained

9. Audit trail and electronic signatures

   Signer, time, meaning, revision, and audit history preserved

10. Retention, access, and retrieval

   Authorized and inspection roles retrieve representative records

11. Cutover, rollback, and source freeze

   Approved freeze and reconciliation before target use; source retained until approval

12. Migration summary and approval

   Approved only after full affected-population relationship rerun

## Use and limitations

Adapt this template to the applicable regulation, approved validation procedure, document-control process, risk method, and approval roles. CSVtoCSA does not present this template as a universally required validation record.