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Partner Factory Model

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A migration factory can only deliver predictable wave throughput when partner capacity, capabilities, and governance fit the migration demand. A weak partner model leads to bottlenecks, quality variance, and escalation overload.

Delivery capacity profile

Baseline FTE and role mix per wave phase, including peak handling for cutover windows.

Capability coverage

Required competencies across infrastructure migration, data migration, integration, testing, security evidence, and release coordination.

Governance and SLA model

Decision rights, escalation tiers, service windows, response times, and quality KPIs.

Compliance boundaries

Regulatory obligations, data handling constraints, evidence retention, and audit traceability.

Selection Criteria for a Migration Partner Factory

Section titled “Selection Criteria for a Migration Partner Factory”
  • Demand-fit: Capacity and skill depth match expected wave mix and complexity distribution.
  • Operational maturity: Proven runbook discipline, quality gates, rollback governance, and reporting.
  • Toolchain interoperability: Ability to integrate with selected migration tools and customer controls.
  • Risk handling: Demonstrated incident response, escalation behavior, and stakeholder communication.
  • Commercial model fit: Contract model aligns with wave variability, pilot-to-scale ramp, and quality incentives.
  1. Establish migration demand baseline (volume, complexity, criticality, and dependency profile).
  2. Build partner evaluation matrix with weighted criteria and mandatory gate conditions.
  3. Run due diligence on delivery evidence (sample runbooks, metrics, incident history, references).
  4. Define joint operating model, including RACI, decision gates, and weekly governance cadence.
  5. Agree SLA package and quality thresholds per wave stage.
  6. Run pilot wave and recalibrate capacity, governance, and escalation mechanics.
  • Partner capability map against migration demand profile.
  • Agreed operating model (RACI + governance forums + escalation matrix).
  • SLA and KPI baseline per wave stage.
  • Risk register with owner assignments and mitigation triggers.
  • Pilot wave acceptance report with go/no-go recommendation for scale.

Worked Example: Mixed Rehost/Replatform Wave

Section titled “Worked Example: Mixed Rehost/Replatform Wave”

A program with 120 workloads (70% rehost, 30% replatform to Kubernetes) typically needs two paired squads: an infrastructure-migration squad sized for rehost throughput, and a platform-engineering squad covering containerization and cluster onboarding. Capacity planning should reflect this split explicitly rather than averaging FTEs across a single generic “migration engineer” role, because rehost and replatform waves draw on different skills, tooling, and cutover risk profiles.