# Workstreams in a large migration Large migration projects typically consist of multiple workstreams, and each workstream has a clear scope of tasks. Each workstream is independent but also supports the other workstreams to accomplish the same goal – migrate servers at scale. This section discusses the standard core workstreams for large migrations as well as common supporting workstreams. ## Core workstreams Core workstreams are needed for every large migration, regardless of company size or segment. The following is an overview of the primary roles of each core workstream: + **Foundation workstream** – This workstream is focused on preparing the people and platform for the large migration. + **Project governance workstream** – This workstream manages the overall migration project, facilitates communication, and focuses on completing the project within budget and on time. + **Portfolio workstream** – The teams in this workstream collect metadata to support the migration, prioritize applications, and perform wave planning. + **Migration workstream** – Using the wave plan and collected metadata from the portfolio workstream, the teams in this workstream migrate and cutover the applications and servers. Information and activities flow from upstream to downstream in a large migration, as shown in the following table. Information comes from the upstream foundation and project governance workstreams, through the portfolio workstream, and into the migration workstream. For example, the portfolio workstream is upstream of the migration workstream because the portfolio workstream prepares the metadata and wave plan that the migration workstream uses to migrate and cutover the applications and servers. Adding additional, supporting workstreams in your large migration project might change the flow of information and activities through the core workstreams. **Important** You need to assign a project-level technical leader for your large migration project. This role is not part of any individual workstream but has the total responsibility of all workstreams. This individual oversees all workstreams to make sure they work together and stay focused on the project-level goals. | Core workstream name | Upstream workstreams | Downstream workstreams | | --- | --- | --- | | Foundation | — | Migration
Portfolio | | Project governance | — | Migration
Portfolio | | Portfolio | Foundation
Project governance | Migration | | Migration | Foundation
Project governance
Portfolio | — | The following are the primary functions of each core workstream in the phases of a large migration. The playbooks in this document series are structured to help you navigate the tasks for each workstream in the appropriate phase and stage. [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) The following sections describe each of the core workstreams in more detail, including common tasks for each workstream, the expected outcome of each workstream, and the skills required in each workstream. It is not required that each individual in the workstream have every skill. A workstream consists of one more cross-functional teams, so each person contributes different skills. But as a team, they should have all the skills listed. ### Foundation workstream The foundation workstream consists of two categories: platform foundation and people foundation. Building the platform foundation helps confirm that both the AWS and the on-premises infrastructures are ready to support the large migration. Building a people foundation prepares and trains the project teams for the migration and sets up all workstreams. | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | ### Project governance workstream The project governance workstream manages the overall migration project and is responsible for delivering the project on budget and on time. | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | ### Portfolio workstream The portfolio workstream manages all of the migration discovery activities, collects metadata, prioritizes applications, and creates a wave plan to support the migration workstream. | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | ### Migration workstream The migration workstream manages the migration implementation-related activities, including data replication and cutover. Because the migration team performs the migration and cutover, a common misconception is that the migration workstream does everything in a large migration project. However, the migration workstream is dependent on other workstreams to build the foundation and provide portfolio data to support the migration. **Tip** The migration workstream is generally the largest workstream in a large migration project. Depending on the size and strategy of your project, consider dividing this workstream into multiple sub-workstreams. For example: Rehost migration workstream Replatform migration workstream Refactor migration workstream Relocate migration workstream Migration workstream for a specialized workload, such as SAP or databases | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | ## Supporting workstreams Supporting workstreams support the core workstreams. These workstreams are optional, and you might decide to use them based on your use case and the current stage of your migration. The following are some common supporting workstreams that you might want to include in your large migration project: + **Security and compliance workstream** – This workstream defines and builds the security standards for the target AWS infrastructure and supports migrations. + **Cloud operations (Cloud Ops) workstream** – This workstream manages applications after cutover, when the hypercare period is complete. + **Application testing workstream** – This workstream performs application testing before and during the cutover. + **Specialized workload migration workstream** – This workstream supports migrations for specific, specialized workloads, such as SAP or databases. You might not need a dedicated workstream for these activities. It is common to have an individual or set of individuals be responsible for these activities and then embed those individuals in one of the core workstreams. For example, every large migration requires a security and compliance person because you need to make sure your target infrastructure is secure and compliant. However, security and compliance assessments and decisions are typically performed early in the migration, most commonly in the mobilize phase. If you have already completed this, you do not need a dedicated workstream to repeat the same tasks. However, it is recommended that you embed a security and compliance person in the migration workstream in order to support the migration activities. When you add supporting workstreams, it modifies the flow of information and activities through the core workstreams. The following table is an example of how adding workstreams changes this flow. Your supporting workstreams might differ from the examples in this table. | Workstream name | Type | Upstream workstreams | Downstream workstreams | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Migration | Core | Foundation
Project governance
Portfolio
Security and compliance | Application testing
Cloud operations | | Portfolio | Core | Foundation
Project governance
Security and compliance | Migration | | Project governance | Core | — | Migration
Portfolio | | Foundation | Core | — | Migration
Portfolio
Cloud operations | | Security and compliance | Supporting | — | Migration
Portfolio | | Cloud operation | Supporting | Migration
Application testing
Foundation | — | | Application testing | Supporting | Migration | Cloud operations | | Specialized workload migration | Supporting | Foundation
Project governance
Portfolio
Security and compliance | Application testing
Cloud operations | ### Security and compliance workstream The security and compliance workstream defines and builds the security standards for AWS infrastructure and supports migrations. Using the standards established by this workstream, application owners typically define the security and compliance requirements for each application. You might decide to have the security and compliance workstream review and approve the requirements for some or all applications. | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | ### Cloud operations workstream The cloud operations workstream supports the applications after migration cutover. Sometimes cloud operations is in a separate workstream with dedicated resources, but most commonly, these resources come from existing IT operations teams. In that case, no dedicated workstream is required. | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | ### Application testing workstream The application testing workstream supports application testing before and during the cutover. This workstream is more common in projects where system integrators manage the data centers because the application owners don’t have sufficient knowledge to perform the application tests. In most cases, the application owner performs these activities, and a dedicated application testing workstream is not required. | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | ### Migration workstream for a specialized workload You can create a migration workstream that is dedicated to specialized workloads. Generally, you can build standard migration patterns and runbooks to migrate servers and applications at scale, and these are managed by the migration workstream. However, in some cases, certain applications require special migration processes. For example, you might need a special process in order to migrate Hadoop workloads, SAP HANA databases, or mission-critical applications that cannot tolerate the standard amount of down time. For more information about specialized workloads, see *MAP specialized workloads* at [AWS Migration Acceleration Program](https://aws.amazon.com/migration-acceleration-program/). | | | | --- |--- | | Common tasks | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Expected outcome | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) | | Required skills | [See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-foundation-playbook/workstreams.html) |