Cheap checks, run early and automatically, prevent expensive reloads. A practical checklist for pre-load validation.
Every record rejected during a load costs far more than the check that would have caught it upstream. Pre-load validation is the cheapest quality control a migration has - if it is automated and runs on every extract.
Structural checks
- Mandatory fields populated for the target object and organisational level.
- Field lengths, data types and formats match the target structure.
- Keys are unique; no duplicates across legacy sources.
Referential checks
- Every referenced value exists in the target configuration (plants, company codes, units of measure, payment terms).
- Dependent master data is already loaded or scheduled earlier in the plan.
Business rule checks
- Value mappings applied and complete - no unmapped legacy codes.
- Business-specific rules agreed with data owners are coded, versioned and re-runnable.
Reconciliation readiness
Define the reconciliation before the load: record counts, key totals and sample checks that will prove the migration was complete and correct. If you cannot describe how you will reconcile an object, it is not ready to load.
These checks belong in the pipeline, not in a spreadsheet. That is the approach JBE applies across both data engineering and SAP data migration.