Plan a client file server to cloud migration project

You are the project coordinator.

Simulated workplaceAdvanced missionCAQA Nova Digital Systems

What is going on

Harbourline Accountants has approved scoping for project PRJ-2026-031, moving 2.1 terabytes of client files and its practice database from an ageing on-premises server to cloud storage and a hosted database, with a 38,000 dollar estimate. The partners are anxious about downtime around tax lodgement deadlines and about client confidentiality, and a security incident on a partner's mailbox this week has raised their attention to access controls. Grace Mbeki needs a project plan for the client by 30 September: requirements, schedule with a safe cutover window, budget breakdown, risk register, change control for the cutover, an updated disaster recovery entry for the cloud services and a handover approach.

Grace Mbeki, Projects and Client Solutions Manager
Subject: Harbourline cloud migration project plan and disaster recovery update

Harbourline have approved scoping for the file server to cloud migration, PRJ-2026-031. I need a project plan from you: requirements gathered from the partners and the practice manager, a schedule with a change window that avoids their tax deadlines, a budget breakdown against the 38,000 dollar estimate, a risk register, and an updated disaster recovery entry for the new cloud services. The plan goes to the client on 30 September. Use the change request process for the cutover and the handover template for the end.

Your brief

Gather and document the client's business requirements, prepare a project plan with schedule, budget, risks and change control for the cutover, update the disaster recovery arrangements for the new cloud services and define the handover to the service desk.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

Read the Change Management Policy, the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan and the Project Handover and Post Implementation Review Template and list the requirements that shape the plan.
Prepare and run a requirements workshop with the partners and the practice manager, recording business requirements, data volumes, access rules, retention needs and deadline blackout periods.
Review the Harbourline entries in the IT Asset Register, the Change Request Register and the Security and Safety Incident Register and record the constraints and risks they reveal.
Build a project schedule with phases for design, pilot, data migration, cutover, hypercare and handover, placing the cutover in a window that avoids the client's lodgement deadlines.
Prepare a budget breakdown against the estimate covering labour, licences, migration tools and contingency, and state the assumptions.
Create a risk register with at least eight risks, including data loss, downtime, access misconfiguration and user adoption, each with likelihood, consequence, control and owner.
Draft the Change Request Form for the cutover with a test plan and a rollback plan and record it in the Change Request Register as Submitted.
Update the disaster recovery entry for the new cloud services with recovery tier, backup arrangement and restore test schedule, and define the handover items for the service desk.
Update PRJ-2026-031 in the Project Register with the plan summary and the next milestone.

My notes: what did I enjoy, and what surprised me?

What someone in this role would produce

Requirements document
Project plan with schedule and budget
Risk register
Cutover change request
Disaster recovery and handover updates

Printing this is a record of what you explored. It is not a certificate or a qualification.