Financial Services — Retail & Commercial Banking · Database Platform Migration · Capital One
Database Platform Migration Project Manager Simulation — Capital One
Lead Wave 1 of Capital One's exit from Oracle — twelve transactional databases and 5.1TB of card-servicing data moving to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, against an enterprise licence renewal the bank has already told its board it will not sign. AWS DMS carries seventy percent of the work cleanly. The other thirty percent is 1,800 PL/SQL routines, a set of database links nobody has inventoried, and a replication job that has run untouched for six years. The schema converts in an afternoon. Finding out what the schema was hiding takes the rest of the project. Gain hands-on project management experience over 27 days of real decisions, stakeholders, and PMO deliverables — no prior experience required.
Live PMO Membership, $99/month, cancel anytime. You begin with this project and unlock the full library.
The scenario
Capital One closed its last data center in 2020 and has run on AWS ever since. The infrastructure moved. The databases, for the most part, did not — 47 Oracle instances came along for the ride on EC2 and RDS, carrying their licences with them. In February the bank told its board it would not renew the enterprise Oracle agreement when it expires, and put a number beside the commitment: $11.4M a year in licence and support spend, gone. The Database Modernization Program exists to make that sentence true. Wave 1 is your project. Twelve databases, 5.1TB, everything that sits under card servicing — the systems that answer when a cardholder disputes a charge, changes an address, or asks why their statement looks wrong. AWS Schema Conversion Tool reports that 71% of the estate converts with no human intervention, and the proof-of-concept two quarters ago moved a copy of the largest schema into Aurora PostgreSQL in under a day. Sundara Systems is under a $2.9M statement of work for the remainder: 1,800 PL/SQL routines, an unmeasured set of database links, and a six-year-old Oracle Streams replication feed that appears on every architecture diagram and in nobody's runbook. The predecessor on this seat, Wendell Poe, ran discovery for four months and left for a competitor with the readiness pack complete and every indicator green. Nothing in it is wrong. The question is what it does not measure — and you will be asked to commit to a cutover date before you know the answer.
What you'll do as the project manager
- →Convert and cut over all twelve Wave 1 databases to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL with zero unplanned card-servicing downtime
- →Complete hand-conversion and test coverage of the 1,800 PL/SQL routines Sundara Systems is contracted to deliver
- →Retire the Wave 1 Oracle footprint and its licence entitlement before the enterprise agreement expiry, banking $2.6M of annual run-rate
- →Hold Wave 1 delivery within the $6.4M baseline, with any variance above 10% carried through a SteerCo-approved change request
- →Produce a conversion pattern library from Wave 1 that Waves 2 through 5 inherit rather than rediscover
Project management skills you'll build
The challenges you'll navigate
- •The 1,800 PL/SQL routine count is an estimate from a partial parse, not a complete inventory. The true number is unknown.
- •The Oracle Streams replication feed has run without modification for six years and no current engineer has worked on it.
- •Database links between Wave 1 and the 35 databases still on Oracle are undocumented; severing them is not in anyone's plan.
- •Two of the six internal Oracle DBAs are committed to Wave 2 discovery from mid-project.
- •Converted workload performance on Aurora PostgreSQL has only been measured on a non-production copy under synthetic load.
Technology & stakeholders
You'll manage 7 stakeholders, including Nisha Paliwal (Managing Vice President, Enterprise Data Technology), Nolan Hargitay (Director, Technology Program Management — Enterprise Data Platforms), Sylvia Raczynski (Sr. Distinguished Engineer, Enterprise Data Storage & Consumption Platforms), and more.
What you'll walk away with
A verified, shareable record of a completed enterprise project — plus the PMO deliverables you produced along the way (charter, project plan, SteerCo deck, closure document). It's real, demonstrable project management experience you can put on your resume and speak to in interviews.
Start this simulation today
Build real PM experience by leading this enterprise project from initiation through phase gates.
The Eddie System Live PMO Membership
$99/month. Cancel anytime.
- ✓This complete enterprise project simulation
- ✓Access to 75+ realistic PM simulations
- ✓PM templates and real PMO deliverables
- ✓Live PMO phase-gate sessions with feedback
- ✓Community access, replays, and training
- ✓Resume-backed project stories you can speak to in interviews
You will begin with this project and unlock the full Live PMO membership. Secure checkout by Stripe.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need project management experience to start?
No. This simulation is built for aspiring and practicing project managers alike — you learn by doing. You make real decisions and get feedback, with no PMP or prior PM job required.
How long does this simulation take?
It runs over 27 days, roughly 25 minutes per day, covering the full project lifecycle from initiation to closure.
What will I learn?
You practice the core of project management — stakeholder management, budget and schedule control, risk, scope, and PMO governance — in the context of database platform migration in financial services — retail & commercial banking.
What does it cost?
This simulation is included in The Eddie System Live PMO Membership: $99/month, cancel anytime. One membership unlocks this project plus the full simulation library, PM templates and deliverables, live phase-gate sessions, replays, and community access.
What happens after I join?
Your platform access is instant: log in with the email you joined with and start Day 1 of this simulation. Your invite to the private community (Skool) arrives shortly after joining, included in your membership.
Is this based on the real Capital One?
No, and The Eddie System is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Capital One. It is a realistic training scenario inspired by Capital One and the Financial Services — Retail & Commercial Banking sector. Details, names, and events are fictionalized for training. It is a simulation, not a record of any actual project.
What do I get at the end?
A verified project completion plus the PMO deliverables you produced (charter, plan, SteerCo deck, closure) — proof of hands-on experience you can show employers.
Related simulations
Ready to gain real PM experience?
Run Capital One's database platform migration and 74+ more enterprise simulations.
Capital One and related marks are trademarks of their respective owners. The Eddie System is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Capital One. This simulation is a fictionalized training scenario inspired by publicly known context; it is not a record of any actual project.