How to plan, rehearse and execute a QAD cutover in which the data track, the trading-partner track and the regulated-evidence track each carry their own go and no-go criteria.
A QAD cutover has three tracks, and only one of them looks like a data migration.
This comes first because everything else depends on it, and it is the item most often deferred.
The canonical wave sequence applies, with this estate's particular dependencies noted.
This track runs in parallel from early in the programme, because its critical path runs through other organisations.
Where regulated scope exists, this track has its own preparation and its own veto.
Every wave reconciles at four points, and the discipline exists because of what each boundary reveals.
The playbook names seven end-to-end scenarios, and they are the right set for this estate:
Freeze configuration in the source. Freeze partner map changes — the parallel freeze. Drain what can be drained. Complete production orders, close projects, clear in-transit inventory, complete in-flight partner messages where possible. Take the final extract, within the measured window. Load waves five through eight deltas.
Zero unexplained trial-balance difference. Explained differences with a documented reason and an approver are acceptable; unexplained ones are not. Zero critical lot or serial mismatch. Not a tolerance. The traceability chain is either intact or it is not. Top-tier EDI partner tests passed. Named partners, defined pass criteria.
Partner exceptions in the first week, with an owner who can distinguish a migration artefact from a genuine partner problem and who has direct partner contacts.
A QAD cutover runs three tracks — data, partner and compliance — each with an owner, a rehearsal and a veto. Extraction throughput gates all of them and is unquantified in public sources, so it must be measured on the tenant before any window is committed.