Start with the business service
A workload rarely operates on its own. Begin with the service it supports, the people who depend on it, and the hours when interruption matters most. That context helps determine the migration sequence and what a successful move must demonstrate.
Follow the dependencies
Document identity, network connectivity, storage, scheduled jobs, application integrations, and downstream reporting. Include the informal tasks people perform to keep the service running. A dependency map is useful when it captures both systems and operational work.
Decide how to validate
Define checks for performance, access, data integrity, and recovery before migration begins. Agree on who will validate the service and what conditions would trigger a rollback. A technical deployment is one milestone; a working business process is another.
Plan for the day after
Assign ownership for monitoring, resource usage, support, and updates. Review costs against actual workload behavior after migration. The operating model deserves as much attention as the move itself.