Define the source of truth
For each data group—customer, product, price, inventory and order—define which system owns the truth. Ambiguous two-way ownership is a common source of inconsistency.
Design identifiers and mappings
Systems may represent the same record with different codes. External IDs, unit conversions and status mappings need a durable model.
Design for failure
Connectivity loss, invalid data, partial success and timeouts are normal operating scenarios. Plan retries, quarantine queues and operator notifications.
- Idempotent operations
- Traceable logs and correlation IDs
- Reconciliation reports
- Manual correction workflow
Phase the rollout
Validate in parallel with limited data and users first. Do not complete cutover without rollback steps, clear owners and success thresholds.