The short answer
Verify migrated documents across five dimensions: inventory, file integrity, content readability, association to the correct property or record, and access by intended roles. Use full-population metadata checks plus risk-based content samples, record every inaccessible or misattached file, and retain a retrieval path for approved exclusions.
Operational checklist
Mark your progress, then save a working copy. Selections reset when you leave this page. A checked box is not an approval or evidence of completion.
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Every source document has a disposition
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Integrity metadata compared where available
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Risk-based files opened and reviewed
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Record associations tested
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Representative access roles tested
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Failure patterns expand testing
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Approved exclusions retain retrieval path
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Key takeaways
- A document row is not proof of a readable file.
- Test association and permissions as well as existence.
- Sample by risk and migration behavior, not convenience alone.
Separate five document tests
Inventory asks whether every in-scope source file has a disposition. Integrity asks whether bytes or checksums transferred as intended where available. Readability asks whether an authorized user can open useful content. Association asks whether the document is attached to the correct record. Access asks whether intended roles—and only intended roles—can retrieve it.
Do not expose real leases, identity records, or sensitive attachments in screenshots or general test notes. Use controlled test evidence and restricted references.
Create a file verification matrix
Combine full-population machine checks with human review of selected content and associations.
| Test | Population or sample | Evidence | Failure state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory | All in-scope source IDs | Source-to-destination disposition map | Missing or unexplained exclusion |
| Integrity | All files where hashes/sizes exist | Hash, size, or transfer result | Changed, empty, or truncated file |
| Readability | Risk-based sample by type, age, size, and batch | Opened/rendered result | Unreadable, password-blocked, wrong format |
| Association | Sample plus high-risk relationship rules | Correct property/unit/party/work record | Misattached or orphaned |
| Access | Representative roles | Allowed and denied retrieval tests | Overexposed or unavailable |
Choose samples that can find different failures
Include each document type and migration batch, older and newer files, small and large files, unusual characters, converted formats, records with many attachments, and sensitive categories under controlled review. Add every failure pattern to the next sample or full-population rule.
A sample supports the stated confidence only for its design. Record the population, selection rule, reviewer, and limitations rather than calling it random when it was convenient.
Expand access failures by policy source, not just file
When one file is overexposed or unavailable, identify whether the cause is its parent folder or record, inherited policy, direct grant, shared link, group membership, role mapping, or migration transform. Test an intended role and a specifically disallowed role, then expand to siblings governed by the same policy source.
Keep integrity and access results separate. An identical checksum does not prevent permission drift, and a corrected grant does not prove that the document bytes or association are right.
Edge cases
- A source system provides only download links: record the export time and retrieval result for each in-scope item.
- Password-protected files cannot be inspected: keep them in a distinct unresolved or approved-handling population.
- Filenames changed: rely on stable mapping evidence, not filename similarity alone.
Sources and references
Follow each source to check the underlying claim. Access checks and professional review are different steps.
Continue the workflow
PMS migration acceptance criteriaPMS migration rejected-record registerTwo lease copies disagree: prepare a review packetMigrated attachment permission-drift reviewMigration archive format readability testRevision history
2026-09-18
Initial Phase 2 operational article with an original decision artifact, explicit failure states, primary-source scope notes, and AI-assisted technical review.