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How Do I QA Test my Data Once I Migrate to Virtuous?

Scott Richards
  • Updated

So you are migrating to Virtuous. Welcome aboard! We're glad to have you.

Hopefully the migration process to this point has been relatively smooth. By now, you've got your data loaded in to Virtuous, and you've been tasked with doing some QA (Quality Assurance) testing to make sure the migration was a success. If you've never done QA testing before, not to worry. We've got some general recommendations that should help surface any issues that need to be addressed with your migration consultant.

Because this article is a bit of a doozy, use our Table of Contents to quick jump to the section you need:

 

Let's Set Some Expectations

The purpose of migration is to move your data from its existing entity to the related entity in Virtuous. Migration will not clean or manipulate the data past that, but we do anticipate that there will be data to clean up such as merging, standardizing, etc within your database that you will do once live. The purpose of QA is solely for reviewing the transferring of the legacy data, so we want you to hone in and focus on documenting anything missing or wrongly mapped.

You will want to note any feature requests or data cleanup separately to discuss with your success coach and avoid submitting QA on areas unrelated to migration:

  • Feature Request - How the data looks, how you are able to report or navigate within Virtuous.
  • Support - How a feature is functioning, unrelated to the data itself.
  • Training - Questions about using Virtuous
  • Data Cleanup - Areas where the legacy system has dirty data which is visible in Virtuous, reflected accurately but something you want to clean up once live.

Ultimately, we will rely on your expertise of your team to identify what needs to be addressed but below is a guide to help identify what to submit for your QA Call! If you are not sure if something is one of those things? Add it anyway, your data migration specialist will sort those out to be addressed by your coach.

 Now, let's get started with analyzing and raking through your data.

Step 1: Check Out Some of Your Favorites

Odds are, there are at least a few contacts in your database that you know very well. Choose somewhere between 5-10 familiar contacts and take a close look at their records. (We recommend avoid searching by name in case there are duplicate records and instead use the ID from your current platform.) If possible, have their record in your legacy system available too so you can compare the data. Check for accuracy and note any errors. You want to play close attention to details like:

  • Contacts and Individuals: Does the name of the contact record reflect what was noted in your legacy system, if your legacy system had separate individuals, did they migrate correctly? (Note: any parsing of individuals Virtuous does is limited to only separating by “ and “ or “ & “. You will be responsible for any data cleanup past this.)
  • Contact Methods: Are the phone numbers/email addresses/social profiles correct? Have they been mapped to the correct individual? 

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  • Tags: If your migration included Tags, have they been populated correctly?

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  • Contact Notes: You will have to navigate to the Notes tab on a contact record to view any imported Contact Notes. Do the notes appear to be correct? In some migrations, data from multiple fields may need to be combined in the notes field - check to make sure the formatting is correct.
  • Gifts: Navigate to the Giving tab and check to make sure the donation history is correct and matches the data from your legacy system. In Virtuous, different types of gifts are displayed in separate sections on the Giving tab, which may differ from your legacy system. Be sure to check every section. If your legacy system included Passthroughs, or soft credits, pay extra attention to see that they have been mapped correctly. Note that Virtuous displays only one passthrough giver to a single gift and does assume the entire gift amount is attributed to that passthrough.

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  • Totals: You can also refer to this article for the available export Contact Stats if you want to query for particular records to review their exported totals. Just note that your migration specialist will need specific missing gifts or wrong gift amount example to investigate.
  • Relationships: If your migration included Relationships, have they been populated correctly?

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  • Custom Fields: If your migration included Custom Fields, have they been populated correctly? Are they mapped to the right contacts or individuals, or both? Pay close attention to the field type -- some may be drop-down lists, others may be free text fields or set up for date/time values -- and see if these are correct.

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Step 2: Get to Know Some Unfamiliar Givers

Once you've gone through and spot-checked some of your well-known contacts, do the same for 5-10 randomly selected contacts, preferable ones that you don't know very well. Compare the data in Virtuous to that in your legacy system, and look closely at some of the same details as before. Take note of any errors.

Step 3: Spot Check and Reconcile Gift History

Select a few different months, or other time periods, and run a query for all gifts in Virtuous and in your legacy system and compare the two. In Virtuous, you'll need to navigate to the Query Tool and select to run a Gift query. To specify gifts within a specific period, specify the start and end dates, as shown below:

Migration_QA_Query.PNG

Click the "View Results" button to see the total number of gifts within the specified period. If this does not match the legacy system, review the totals to identify a specific gift or two where the gift is missing or the wrong amount. Your DMS will need the specific gift identified to investigate the issue and provide a solution. You can provide the expected totals but the specific gift will need to be submitted on your QA form. You can filter for a specific gift on the gifts page by filtering for the Legacy ID of the specific gift, segment code, project, date or other criteria as well to identify specific gifts.

To calculate totals, click on "Edit Query" to go back and export your data to a CSV file. Be sure to name and save your query before you export it. Otherwise, your export may not run correctly. Once your export file is ready, you can open it in Excel and calculate the total giving amount to see if the dollar total matches the total in your legacy system. Make note of the specific gifts with issues on your QA form.

Step 4: Check Projects and Gifts By Project

If your migration included multiple Projects, or funds, navigate to the Projects screen and browse through a few randomly selected Projects and Subprojects. Take note of specific details like:

  • Project Hierarchy and Structure - Have all of the Projects and Subprojects been set up correctly, and are the right Subprojects associated with the right parent Projects?
  • Project Settings: Depending on your organizational needs, you may have specific Project settings to configure, including values for Project Type, Inventory Status, and Location. Are these set up correctly?
  • Custom Fields: If your Projects include Custom Fields, have they been populated correctly? Pay close attention to the field type -- some may be drop-down lists, others may be free text fields or set up for date/time values -- and see if these are correct.
  • Gift Totals: The header on the Project screen displays the total giving for that Project. Do these totals match the totals listed in your legacy system?

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After spot-checking projects, you can use the Gifts by Project or Project Summary reports on the dashboard to view project giving totals for a few specific months, or other time periods, and compare them to the same time period in your legacy CRM. Investigate any differences to identify specific gifts on your QA form.

Step 5 : Review your Campaigns

If your migration includes Campaigns (may also be called appeals), navigate to the Campaigns screen and browse through a few randomly selected Campaigns and their associated Communications and Segments. Take note of specific details like:

  • Campaign Hierarchy and Structure: Have the Campaigns, Communications and Segments been set up correctly? Note that customization of Campaign structure is only available for Advanced packages.
  • Do the expected segment giving totals match your legacy system?
  • Are you seeing what you use in your legacy system to track motivation for giving in the Campaign structure? Note that Virtuous does not standardize or clean data so if the data was not clean in your legacy system there may be restructuring you will want to do on the Campaign structure once live.

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Note any specific errors including the segment code, the legacy system structure, and any specific gifts on your QA document to identify the specific issue to your migration specialist. If the issue is with the structure itself, be sure to document the use-case.

Step 6 - Review your Custom Data

During your Data Review Call and Mapping Call we discussed areas of customization, or features used in your legacy system that you wanted to see in Virtuous. Click on the below to thoroughly review that the data you noted was brought over correctly.

  • Communication Types
  • Note Types - Virtuous has standard types, these will be your custom note types
  • Contact Types - Virtuous has standard types, these will be your custom contact types
  • Custom Fields and Collections - Be sure to review where the fields live and their types.
  • Relationship Types - Virtuous has standard types, these will be your custom relationship types
  • Project Settings - Any custom status, types or locations?
  • Tags - Note the list of groups is limited, but are you seeing all the tags you should be based on the mapping document/your legacy system’s tags or groups?

Step 7 - Review all Other Migrated Data

Do you have any other areas of your legacy system that you haven’t taken a look at just yet? Here is a starting point for that.

Red Flags

We anticipate changes, no test will be perfect, and that’s why we have this process and can address solutions on your QA call. However, the below are areas that we would want to take a look at right away if found:

  • Missing large amounts of Contacts
  • Severe Contact Naming issues (unsearchable)
  • Any Sections completely missing (Volunteering, Notes,etc)
  • Missing large amounts of Gifts
  • Gifts on the wrong record
  • Gift Amounts being wrong
  • Missing gift connection to Campaigns
  • Missing gift connection to Projects

Common Issues

Data migration is a complex process, and can feel overwhelming. Remember this is all part of the process of helping you to become a responsive fundraiser in Virtuous! Below are some common and normal issues, however, you will still note all issues on your QA form.

  • Do you see duplicate records? Did they exist in your previous database? Virtuous doesn't merge records as part of migration but you'll be able to use our data health tool post migration to merge some of your records.
  • Addresses needing adjustment either on the address itself or or primary notation is wrong/missing
  • Names needing adjustment
  • Contact Method Types are wrong or primary notation is wrong/missing
  • Missing Notes
  • Campaign or Project Structure not as expected
  • Data from Map file is not as expected
  • Relationships types are wrong or reversed
  • Missing soft credits (expected if there were multiple passthrough givers on legacy gifts)
  • Missing or extra individuals
  • Name Parsing not as expected (we do not clean data as part of migration)
  • Missing Gift Splits
  • Missing fields
  • Aggregates being different between Virtuous and the Legacy System (see below)

A Few More Tips From the Pros

Before we release into the wild of QA, we want to give you just a few more heads up. These words of wisdom might help alleviate any stressors in this process.

  • Remember: Going through your test database(s) is meant to help you find discrepancies from migration. Adding any information manually could create confusion for you and your team when identifying those discrepancies. Therefore, we do not recommend using your test database(s) the same way you use your sandbox. Continue to use your sandbox for learning the ropes of Virtuous functionalities.
  • Don’t trust totals between Virtuous and your legacy system (Different CRMs may calculate Aggregates differently. Look more closely at details (specific gifts). The Overview widget rounds data, other CRMs may round differently)
  • Widgets in Virtuous can take 24 hours to update after being imported
  • Virtuous does have a couple System Tags that will be automatically applied to applicable records.
  • Quick search at the top of Virtuous is limited to the top 10 records, use a filter instead if you don’t find your record right away.
  • Always review data by the Legacy Id to make sure you are looking at the right record.
  • Be aware of the date the data was exported, anything entered or changed after that time would not be reflected in your test.
  • Audit/change logs are not migrated
  • Modified by are not migrated
  • If you want to Customize Contact Names for households, this is something you can do in bulk in Virtuous
  • Note that Virtuous does not create permission groups or organization groups in your database. This will be something you set up for your team in your live database.
  • Some data will not be migrated with your test and only your live database such as Note Authors, Tasks associated with users, and email lists.



 

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