How an Infor LN to D365 Finance & Operations migration programme runs in practice: estate inventory, the seven programme stages, the eight-wave data migration plan, SIT/UAT/regression testing strategy, mock cutovers, and the LN-specific traps that most programmes encounter.
An LN-to-D365 programme is one of the most complex ERP transitions in the enterprise market. LN is a deep, mature system with 20–30 years of accumulated configuration, customisation, and business-process design embedded in it.
The Orient stage (weeks 1–4) establishes the programme: governance, team, infrastructure, and high-level scope. For LN, Orient should include a first read of the VRC triage framework and the enterprise model unbundling options. The programme's most consequential decisions are taken in Discover.
Decide (weeks 13–16) locks the architecture and migration approach. The enterprise model, data migration approach, and key configuration decisions are confirmed. The eight-wave migration plan is the data migration architecture:
Build (typically 16–24 weeks for a complex LN migration) is where D365 is configured and extended. The testing strategy runs in parallel with Build and continues through Prove.
Mock cutovers are rehearsals of the cutover weekend. The playbook recommends three mock cutovers, each with increasing fidelity to the live cutover:
Trap 1: Order-type proliferation. A mature LN implementation may have 50–100 order types accumulated over 15 years. Many are rarely used, some are duplicates, and some carry custom Tools code that has not been maintained. Without a disciplined order-type inventory and rationalisation in Discover, Build scope expands without bound.
An LN-to-D365 migration programme is a complex, multi-stage programme with a specific dependency structure and known risk patterns. The playbook's seven stages and eight waves provide a framework that manages these dependencies explicitly.