From Migration Plan to Production Deployment
Planning a PQC migration is one competency; executing it in production is another. This 8-hour course covers the execution phase in depth: planning migration waves, defining entry and exit criteria, building pilot evidence dossiers, conducting rollback and negative testing, deploying to production, and handing over to operations. It is the practical companion to the planning-focused courses, built for the people who actually deploy the changes.
Who Should Take This Course
Migration engineers, implementation leads, DevOps engineers, and technical project leads responsible for executing PQC migration in production.
What You Will Learn
This course provides hands-on technical depth in a specific dimension of PQC migration, aligned with the PQC Migration Framework. You will gain practical, applicable skills you can use immediately in migration work.
Course Outline
Module 1 — Wave Planning and Sequencing
Designing migration waves from the prioritized inventory. Grouping systems for coordinated migration. Defining wave scope and boundaries. Sequencing waves to manage risk and dependencies. Building the wave-by-wave execution plan.
Module 2 — Entry/Exit Criteria and Pilot Evidence
Defining entry and exit criteria for each wave. Pilot design: proving the approach before full deployment. Building pilot evidence dossiers that justify proceeding. Go/no-go decision frameworks for each wave.
Module 3 — Testing: Rollback and Negative Testing
Rollback testing: verifying that every change can be reversed. Negative testing: confirming that legacy algorithms are refused where required. Downgrade testing in the deployment context. Load and performance testing under production-representative conditions.
Module 4 — Production Deployment
Deploying cryptographic changes to production. Deployment sequencing and timing. Managing dual-algorithm operation during cutover. Monitoring during deployment. Handling issues that appear only under production load.
Module 5 — Verification and Closure
Verifying that a wave is complete and correct. Closure criteria and sign-off. Documenting what was migrated and how. Producing audit evidence for the completed wave.
Module 6 — Operational Handover
Handing migrated systems over to operations. Operational runbooks for the new cryptographic configuration. Ongoing monitoring requirements. The transition from migration project to permanent cryptographic operations capability.
Prerequisites
A working understanding of PQC fundamentals is recommended. Consider Post-Quantum Foundation or PQCS certification for background. Some courses assume security engineering experience.
Certificate of Completion
Upon completion, you will receive a Quantum Academy certificate of completion. CPE credits earned may apply toward Quantum Academy certification maintenance.