The Program selects a target architecture based on a business case analysis and assembles the migration plan documentation. The program defines migration goals, obtains stakeholder consensus, and then publishes the long-term high-level migration plan that will drive the development of detailed short-term project plans for the migration increments.

Use the detailed characterization of the alternative target architectures (see the Develop Alternative Target Architectures  perspective) to select one that best meets the enterprise's vision and the program's needs, requirements, cost, schedule, and risk constraints.

Formulate specific goals for the migration. Even though the goals are expected to evolve as various influencing factors change, this will help keep the target migration benefits in focus during the entire process. This may also provide a good basis for lessons learned as plan revisions occur. Use the same goal setting methodology when revising migration goals during migration execution. See the Migration Patterns perspective for a discussion about various technical migration goals based on the initial state of a system.

The migration plan includes the following elements:

• Migration Rationale Statement (to include the Migration Vision Statement)
• Description of the time-phased target architecture
• Timeframe for implementation
• Results of the business case analysis, including cost/benefit and risk analysis and immediate and potential, longer-term, benefits expected from the migration
• Analysis of trade-offs that led to accepted solutions
• Description of technical solutions adequate for reuse
• Stakeholders, responsibilities, dependencies
• Test strategy (to include criteria to use to measure the success of the migration)
• Considerations for an implementation process (e.g., agile methodology, existing processes used by contractors)