Step 1: Define Stakeholders and Goals

Bring the right people into the conversation before the project starts. IT leadership, department heads, and end users all have a stake in how the migration runs and what success looks like. Agree on why the migration is happening, whether cost reduction, compliance requirements, or platform modernization, and document the expected outcomes.

Without shared goals documented before work begins, scope decisions become ownership disputes mid-project. That’s a recoverable problem early and an expensive one later.

Step 2: Assess the Current Email Environment

You cannot scope what you haven’t measured.

Take a full inventory of every mailbox, shared inbox, distribution list, and archive in the environment. Record data volumes, total user counts, and every legacy system that touches email. Pay particular attention to service mailboxes and executive inboxes. Both carry more hidden complexity than they appear to from the outside, and both surface at the worst possible time if they’re underscoped.

Step 3: Define What Will and Won’t Migrate

Scope requires two lists, not one. Document what is being migrated and document what is being intentionally excluded. Spam folders, deleted items past a certain age, and decommissioned accounts are common exclusions that reduce scope and risk when decided early.

Exclusions decided after migration starts become disputes. Exclusions decided and documented in scope become decisions.

Step 4: Establish Technical Boundaries

Identify the source and target platforms. Map integration dependencies across calendars, contacts, and third-party applications. Assess network constraints. Choose an implementation approach, cutover, staged, or hybrid, and document the rationale.

Every subsequent technical decision in the project flows from what gets established here. Changing these boundaries mid-project doesn’t just affect the technical plan. It affects the timeline, the stakeholder communication, and the validation criteria.

Step 5: Set a Timeline and Define Done

Build a timeline with specific milestones: pilot group, phased rollout, final cutover, and Hyper Care window. Then define what done actually means before the project runs.

Vague success criteria keep projects open long after the technical work is finished. Specific measures close them. Zero data loss, 99% mailbox parity, full user access within an agreed window. Pick the ones that matter for this environment, document them, and get stakeholder sign-off before migration begins.

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