Website Migration Masterclass

Website Migration Masterclass

@jdavidhobbsHartman Event 2012

Introductions

• Where are you in the migration process?

• Are you part of an internal web team?

• What is your role?

• Do you have one burning question?

@jdavidhobbs http://hobbsontech.com 2

20

Masterclass goals

• An initial estimate of manual effort

• Answer some questions you have

• A more interesting way to view migrations

• Ways to avoid surprises and train wrecks


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


http://bit.ly/cm-interest






What is a website migration?

The transfer of

content, sites/sections, functionality, team, te

mplates, information architecture, and

relationships from one platform to another –

Website Migration Handbook v2



The transfer of






Not just content!


The transfer of






Every

migration

is

different!

Where are you?

Answer 10 questions to gauge where you

are and where you are going:


5

http://bit.ly/s-eval

Where are you on the graph?


You are moving


a weight

You are moving


a weight ac ross a d i s tance

You are moving


less distance is preferable

You are moving


less weight is preferable

You should control both


Also control quality


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 16http://hobbsontech.com

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?


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.


Example quality level

Anyone have a sample page for us to

analyze together now?


5

Standardization scale


DIVING IN: MANUAL EFFORT


Content migration: Automation

http://bit.ly/migauto




Don’t just consider the movement of content –

there are important steps before and after


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

Content Handling Process

http://bit.ly/contenthandling




Example: Content Handling

• Anyone have a sample content type for us

to analyze together now?


10

Computing Manual Effort

Manual Effort for Bucket =

Content Count x

(Sort Effort + Place Effort + Edit Effort + Move /

Transform Effort + Enhance Effort + QA Effort)


Individual exercise: estimate

manual effort level

Estimate effort level for a major bucket of

content of your site


Sort Place Edit Move /

Transform

Enhance QA

Effort per

page

15

Collaborative review

• Review your initial estimates

• Discuss opportunities to

streamline, mitigate against risks, and / or

increase quality


15


The transfer of






Many / most should be inventoried


The transfer of






Pay particular attention to content

Rethinking the Content Inventory

1. Exploration

2. Sources of Content

3. Site Inventories

4. Layers of Content

5. Topic Inventories

6. Quality


http://bit.ly/rethink-ci




Why control the 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


Rules-based culling example

InventoryDefine Rules

Confirm Implement

@jdavidhobbs 36hobbsontech.com



Confirm Implement

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




Confirm Implement


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.


One aspect of distance


Controlling Distance

• Phase

• Modify depth of support

• Eliminate functionality entirely

• Concentrate on highest bang for the buck


Planning Process


Your vision

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


REMAINING QUESTIONS?


Summary

1. Set your vision

2. Inventory

3. Control quality

4. Control weight and distance

5. Estimate

6. Iterate


Thanks!

• New offering: Five Steps Program

http://hobbsontech.com/five-steps-

program


hobbsontech.com\five-steps-program





Website Migration Masterclass

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Transcript of Website Migration Masterclass