Business and Strategy
I’m Leaving You: The Risks ofDumping Your Old CMS for
Drupal and How to Manage Them
Presented by Nicole LindGroup Vice President, [email protected]
Why this session?Surprise dangers lurk!
Unrealistic expectations
Drains on resources
Difficulty with change
Unrecognized risks
The goalsSet better expectations
Provide a risk assessment framework
Minimize surprises
Bring sanity to a potentiallystressful experience
Understanding theSituation:The LANGUAGE
Doublespeak is language thatdeliberately disguises, distorts, or reversesthe meaning of words.
Doublespeak may take the form ofeuphemisms (e.g., “downsizing” for layoffs),making the truth less unpleasant.
From Wikipedia(paraphrased)
UnderstandingDrupalDoublespeak
Implication:
Your site is practicallyalready built!
Truth:
You’re going to need plentyof development work to getthe custom look andfunctionality you have inmind.
“There’s aModule forThat!”
UnderstandingDrupalDoublespeak
Implication:
“Of course the designs arefinal”. Just a few tweaks areexpected and shouldn’timpact functionality.
Truth:
Even small design changescan introduce significantlynew functionality.
“Final designs”
UnderstandingDrupalDoublespeak
Implication:
The new CMS will becompletely customized, butshould act like shrinkwrapped software withdocumented manuals and nobugs.
Truth:
Your Drupal CMS is oftencustom-made. It will requirea debugging period andcustom documentation.
“Flexibility”
UnderstandingDrupalDoublespeak
Implication:
Drupal is free! Of course it’sgoing to be cheaper!
Truth:
Every project is unique.While Drupal is free, thedevelopment, support, andhosting of your project isnot. Savings (and costs) willvary.
“Cost Savings”
UnderstandingDrupalDoublespeak
Implication:
There are Drupal developerseverywhere!
Truth:
Hiring and maintainingDrupal talent is gettingharder and harder no matterwhere your organizationoperates
“There’s talent allover the world”
Understanding theSituation:The PEOPLE
Tribalism is a strong Cultural orethnic identity that separates one
member of a group from theother members of another group.
From Wikipedia (paraphrased)
Understanding theDrupal TribeMembers
Evangelist
Passive-aggressive
Openly hostile
Know-it-all
Apathetic
Protector
Chief
Common tribemembers of aDrupal CMSmigration
Evangelist
DescriptionBrought Drupal to theorganization or pushed for amajor over hall of the existingimplementation
CaveatsDepending on how they “sold”Drupal (which is often an oversellwith Drupal Speak terms) to theorganization will determine howto handle the rest of the tribemembers.
What to do with themManage expectations and bringeveryone back to reality
Evangelist
Passive-Agressive
DescriptionExpresses aggression in non-assertive (i.e. indirect) ways
CaveatsAlthough not a very vocal tribemember, the passive aggressiveoften uses subversive emails andconversations to pass blame andavoid doing their job
What to do with themPoint out the inconsistencybetween their words and actions
Passive-Aggressive
Openly Hostile
DescriptionOpenly antagonistic to theproject. They will be the firstperson to say I told you Drupalwas a bad idea
CaveatsOften motivated by fear and theyoften feel they should be leadingthe project effort
What to do with themAssign an important job in theproject to this person orcompletely eliminate them. Thereis no sitting on the fence orshades of grey
Openly Hostile
Know-It-All
DescriptionOften a very experiencedtechnical person but they arenew to Drupal.
CaveatsConfusion drives this personand they will complain about theinadequacies of Drupal but notreally know Drupal
What to do withthem
Train these people as soon andas much as possible!
Know-it-All
Apathetic
DescriptionThe apathetic will sit on thesideline and make no meaningfulcontribution to the project
CaveatsUsually much of the editorial staffis apathetic and unfortunately theydon’t say much about the CMSuntil the new product is alreadybuilt
What to do with themPreview as much of the early buildthrough demos and test accounts
Apathetic
The Protector
DescriptionKeeper of the budget andsustains the migration effortthrough resourcing
CaveatsSometimes unclear who thismember is and how muchpower they have
What to do withthem
Make this tribe member yourfriend. Take them for dinner anddrinks. Schmoozing!
The Protector
The Chief
DescriptionThe mover off all things relatedto the migration effort.Understands the strategy,language and players associatedwith getting the job done
CaveatsNot always well liked and mayneed to be hard on other tribemembers
What to do withthem
Empower this tribe memberwith real authority
The Chief
Understanding Changein the Drupal TribalCommunityKey Considerations
People are scared.
Tough changes can make peopleredundant, threaten jobs and require the restructuring of theorganization
Speed of change matters.
Slow is usually easier, but manyweb projects require urgency andspeed to market
People react differently.
Some are more impacted bychange and sometimes do notcope well; may act out, taking ontribe roles of the openly hostileor passive aggressive member.
Change is inherently risky.
It should be managed with careand professionalism
Migrating is InherentlyRisky and What To DoAbout It:Evolving People and LanguageThrough Risk Assessment
Identifying the most commonrisks
No Drupal experience
Unknown dependencies
Scheduling
Double data entry
Unidentified block behavior
Old legacy system has no clearmigration path
Lack of clear content mapping
Cost
Schedule
Performance
Risks Potential Impacts
Survey users andstakeholders for additionalpotential risk
Don’t forget members of thetechnical team (includingdevelopers, system administrators andhosting partners).
Take time to understand editor andcontent contributor processes andexpectations for the admin.
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Setting up a risk trackingmethod
Many formats available on the web;Google “risk analysis” or “riskassessment” for ideas.
Most often includes tracking risk forLikelihood of occurring and Impact onthe project; impact could be financial,timeline, or quality of the outcome
Likelihood definitions
Likelihood description Percentage of possibility
Almost certain > 95%Likely 65% to 95%
Possible 35% to 65%
Unlikely 5% to 35%
Rare < 5%
Impact definitionsImpact Description
Very serious An event whose occurrence will impact the project’s cost, schedule orfeature set so severely that the project will be terminated.
Serious An event that seriously impacts (more than 10%) project budget,feature set and/or schedule; alternately denotes serious loss in requiredfunctionality that will be unacceptable to business stakeholders.
Moderate An event that, if it occurs, will cause a modest change to the project’stechnical architecture, a modest loss of some non-critical functionality,and/or a modest loss of some non-critical operational performancerequirements. Minimum acceptable requirements will beachieved. Budget and/or schedule loss will be less than 10%.
Minor An event that, if it occurs, will cause small cost (and/or schedule) increasesthat, in most cases, can be absorbed by the project. Little to no lossof required functionality.
Sample risk assessmentRisk Likelihood Impact
Unnecessary project hours (budget)spent waiting for stakeholderapprovals
Likely Minor
Emerging requirements afterdiscovery completed which couldimpact timeline, budget and quality
Likely Moderate
Hosting solution is not “approved”as of yet
Almost certain Very Serious
No clear migration path of existingcontent from old CMS which putstimeline at significant risk
Almost certain Serious
Creating risk mitigationplans for Drupalmigration projects
Common sense plans thathelp reduce risk
Set clear and measurable goals
Conduct a project discovery
Provide as much training anddocumentation as budget and scheduleallows
Setting clear andmeasurable goals
“We are moving toDrupal because wewant our CMS to bemore flexible.”
“We expect to save alot of money movingto Drupal.”
“One of the maingoals of this projectis to double ourtraffic the firstmonth after launch.”
Unclear Not Specific Unrealistic
Setting clear andmeasurable goals
Goals need to be specific and realisticto help set expectations for success ofthe project.
Goals also focus our attention onhigher priority activities versus lowerpriority activities.
Project discovery…Helps stakeholders and implementation
teams to understand the real needs of themigration project
Is ideal for fleshing out the unknowns(risk) of a project.
Can be as short or long as needed, butshould be done regardless
Training & Documentation
Budgets and timelines generally don’t coverthe real outlay for training anddocumentation…which is a risk.
More efficient deliveryCreate inline documentation as much as
possible. Saves time and money relative to creatingdocumentation in two places.
Regularly demo functionality for stakeholders.These sessions can be recorded and used for futuretraining and documentation needs.
Maintain a central repository for all projectdocuments.
Putting everythingtogetherRisk Likelihood Impact Mitigate Plan
Unnecessary project hours(budget) spent waiting forstakeholder approvals
Likely Minor No
Emerging requirements afterdiscovery completed which couldimpact timeline, budget andquality
Likely Moderate Yes Implement ticketing system thattracks changes to features.System should be able toidentifying bugs fromimprovement request
Hosting solution is not“approved” as of yet
Almostcertain
VerySerious
Yes Push launch timeline out 3 weeks to account for delay.Communicate to all projectstakeholders
No clear migration path ofexisting content from old CMSwhich puts timeline at significantrisk
Almostcertain
Serious Yes Start looking for outside vendorsthat specialize in data migration
Distributing and publishingthe risk and mitigation plans
Initial risk assessments should be placed in theproject discovery documentation (if one isconducted)
On-going risk assessments should be shared withproject stakeholders through meetings, email,scrums, etc.
Once new risk are communicated the documentshould be updated and saved to the centraldocument repository (i.e. Google docs, Basecamp,etc.)
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Final thoughtsBe patient
Understand the people and language of thecommunity moving to Drupal
Be sensitive to how other tribal membersdeal with change
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#1 Key Takeaway
Identifying and managing risk isthe most effective way to evolveyour community and successfully
migrate to Drupal
Questions?
Thank YouQuestions
52
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http://denver2012.drupal.org/program
Click the “Take the Survey” link.
Thank You!
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