gilbane website migration workshop

Website Migration WorkshopPart 1: Planning

@jdavidhobbs Gilbane Boston 2012

Quick poll

• Where are you in the migration process? 1) Considering it? 2) Planning? 3) Migrating now? 4) Getting over one?

• How many of you have done a migration in the past? If so, did it go as planned?

• Are you part of an internal web team?

• Are 1) you yourself migrating content or 2) planning or overseeing that?

@jdavidhobbs http://hobbsontech.com 2

My primary goal


Ways to avoid surprises and train wrecks

http://hobbsontech.com 4

Migrations are interesting!

Boring Interesting

Cutting and pasting

- Searching for patterns- Improving your content

One-time exercise - Setting up a long term program

Unending - Develop tracking metrics

Unimportant - Critical to success

Ramming in content

- Exposing (non-migration) problems

@jdavidhobbs

http://bit.ly/cm-interest




What is a website migration?

The transfer of content, sites/sections, functionality, team, templates, information architecture, and relationships from one platform to another – Website Migration Handbook v2





Not just content!




Every migration is different!


You are moving

@jdavidhobbs

a weight


You are moving

@jdavidhobbs

a weight across a d istance


You are moving

@jdavidhobbs

less distance is preferable


You are moving

@jdavidhobbs

less weight is preferable


You should control both

@jdavidhobbs


Where are you?

Answer 10 questions to gauge where you are and where you are going:

@jdavidhobbs

http://bit.ly/s-eval


Compelling Vision

@jdavidhobbs

Most stakeholders say it’s compelling Not just for small group Understandable by all Substantial improvement Can help prioritize Justifies migration Short Achievable Widely communicated


Planning Process

@jdavidhobbs


What can and cannot be automated

http://bit.ly/migauto

@jdavidhobbs




Don’t just consider the movement of content – there are important steps before and after

@jdavidhobbs

Use a consistent approach

to batch contenthttp://bit.ly/panning

http://bit.ly/panning

Except for small sites, don’t do all

steps for each content item

http://bit.ly/contenthandling


Content Handling Process


@jdavidhobbs




Computing Manual Effort

Manual Effort for Bucket = Content Count x (Sort Effort + Place Effort + Edit Effort + Move / Transform Effort + Enhance Effort + QA Effort)

@jdavidhobbs

http://hobbsontech.com 22@jdavidhobbs




Many / most should be inventoried




Pay particular attention to content


Rethinking the Content Inventory

1. Exploration2. Sources of Data3. Site Inventories4. Layers of Content5. Topic Inventories6. Quality

@jdavidhobbs

http://bit.ly/rethink-ci

http://bit.ly/rethink-ci


Why control your weight

1)Migration is a perfect opportunity to better focus your site and improve quality by dropping content

2)It’s an opportunity to talk about your content in general

3) Less weight is easier to migrate@jdavidhobbs

hobbsontech.com 27

Rules-based culling example

Inventory Define Rules Confirm Implement

@jdavidhobbs

hobbsontech.com 28



Example rules:

• If business focus is high, then edit• If less than six page views in the last month, then drop• If the page is in version 2, then move as-is• If the page is in version 1 and more than 100 page views in the

last month, then as-is• Otherwise, drop

@jdavidhobbs

hobbsontech.com 29



@jdavidhobbs

Also see case study

http://www.slideshare.net/jdavidhobbs/exploding-topics-pages




Distance is from where you are

If you already have a base station on the moon, then moving to the next crater might be easy.

If you live in a cardboard box, then moving into an apartment down the street may be difficult.

@jdavidhobbs


One aspect of distance

@jdavidhobbs


Controlling Distance

• Phase• Modify depth of support• Eliminate functionality entirely• Concentrate on highest bang for the

buck

@jdavidhobbs


Also control quality

@jdavidhobbs


One of the most important controls you have at your disposal is quality level, and it isn’t just a simple yes / no toggle switch

@jdavidhobbs


Some quality level questions

• What elements that currently are unmanaged will be managed?

• How will links within the content be handled? How will redirects happen?

• In general, what HTML transformation needs to occur?

• How accurate does placement and tagging need to be?

• What backend structure should be in place? What default values will be used?

@jdavidhobbs


Important quality tidbits

• Even if you go with the incumbent team / tool capabilities, you should ask yourself what level of quality you expect.

• Talking about quality early avoids expectation surprises when it’s too late.

• When reviewing quality expectations, consider who is responsible for attaining that quality level and also who will test that this is done.

@jdavidhobbs


Summary

1. Set your vision2. Inventory3. Control quality, weight and distance4. Estimate5. Iterate

@jdavidhobbs


Thanks!

@jdavidhobbs

Use discount code ‘boston’ for $25 off v2 handbook

gilbane website migration workshop

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