Wildebeest migration by daretothink

As Transition manager for the FCOWeb project at the Foreign Office I was responsible for migrating and re-launching over 230 websites from our old CMS web platform to the new CMS platform. These websites were distributed globally and there were over 200 webmasters spread across the globe.

This was a complicated, painful, and time consuming process for all involved.

During this process I learnt several valuable lessons I think are useful to pass on….

Migrate as little as possible – In any migration the approach should always be to migrate the minimum amount of content possible. Why migrate content that is not required? When talking to content owners or webmasters always question why content should be migrated. Editors tend to assume all of their content is vital and therefore should be migrated. Website migration is an opportunity to streamline content and tidy up bloated websites.

If a site is small or out of date, do not migrate it at all. Don’t assume all sites need to be migrated, it will often be a longer, more painful process to map, migrate, and tidy up a site for re-launch than it would be to just build the site from scratch on the new platform. Create a list of sites and content within scope and stick to it.

It’s not just content – Migrating websites is not just about the content. If you have subscribers to your sites you need to consider whether you need to migrate these subscribers to the new platform and how. If you have CMS user accounts consider whether they need to be migrated too (I would advise against that!)

Make the process repeatable – Design the migration process so that it is repeatable. Ideally the extract – transform – load process should be repeatable so that is can be applied to any given site.

Make webmasters part of the process – Website migration is reliant on many stakeholders. Of those, site webmasters are the most important because you are reliant on them to identify content to be migrated, map old content to the new information architecture, and tidy up the migrated site for launch. You must involve these stakeholders in the migration process as early as possible and keep them engaged throughout the process. Let them know what is required from them, the timetable, and make them feel ownership for the migration of their website. Without these people on your side you stand little chance of hitting your migration deadlines.

Make the mapping process as simple as possible – Website migration usually involves mapping content from the old website onto the new IA to be used by the new site. This process can be confusing for webmasters and content owners. Make the mapping process simple by using a familiar application such as MS Excel and macros to automate the process as much as possible. If you can pre-populate any of the mapping then all the better.

It is likely to be far easier and quicker to migrate pages into “buckets” of pages on the destination server than try and fully build the new website structure automatically as part of the migration. It is then a simple task for webmasters to rebuild the site structure and move pages to the correct attach points.

Get the right team - Website migration boils down to a complicated technical task of transferring data between databases. Ensure you have a strong technical team that understand your content at a technical level, understand the destination content structure, and have experience of migrating content from one platform to another.

It is also vital you have good communicators who can keep key individuals informed and maintain the flow of information back to you in the centre.

Minimise parallel running – Once a website is migrated from one platform to another there will be a period of parallel running before the new site is launched. During this period a webmaster needs to check and tidy up the migrated site before launch and maintain the old website which is still live. This period is resource intensive and should be kept to a minimum.

Be strong with the timetable – It is vital that you stick to the timetable as closely as possible. It can take weeks or months to tidy up and launch migrated websites, if you let your timetable slip at an early stage you will never make up the lost time and a domino effect will cause further delays. If those involved meet their deadlines you have a good chance of meeting yours. As well as working with content owners, it is important to identify a senior responsible owner (SRO) for each site you are migrating. If deadlines are missed or work not completed the issues can be escalated to the SRO who can then put pressure on their own staff.

Migrating multiple sites is a complicated and time consuming business. Careful planning, the right people, and a realistic timetable can minimise the pain for all involved.

Good luck!