Migrating Legacy Content

How to Improve Content Usability and Quality Through a Migration Project

Presenter: Laura Melcher

CM Pros Summit

Nov. 26, 2007

Presentation topics

Overview of migration projects Planning a migration Conducting a content inventory Developing a migration strategy Defining workflows and access controls Creating content standards Implementing a governance model

Overview

How migration projects start Ideally, as a result of strategic planning for site

improvement Realistically, out of necessity

The good news Migrations are terrific opportunities for improvement

The less-good news Migrations are often very labor-intensive and can be

politically and culturally difficult

Migration planning

Understand the project mandate (the “why”) Identify stakeholders and political barriers Determine any budget/resource/time constraints Work with technology and other stakeholders to confirm

roles and responsibilities Get content inventory/analysis activities under way as

soon as possible - this is by far the most time-consuming aspect of your project.

Migration planning (cont.)

Migration team resource models (the “who”) Centralized

Web team (usually, IT and communications/marketing) with involvement as needed from content owners

Decentralized Individual content owners/stakeholders with some

direction from Web team Outsourced

External team with involvement of individual content owners and oversight of Web team OR

External team to augment your staff resources

Migration planning (cont.)

Work with IA/usability team to determine future-state site architecture based on user research (the “what”)

Decide on information architecture and desired level of functionality (static vs. dynamic)

Determine appropriate CMS “microsite” architecture to support section-specific security, navigation and templating, taking into account the following:

Number and complexity of templates Expected reuse of content across site Amount of dynamic or personalized content Volatility of content (how often it changes) Desired security and workflow model

Content inventory

Five key content analysis factors: Volume

What you can delete? Complexity Quality/reusability

How much work will be required to update “old” content?

Delta between current and future-state content structure/information architecture and overall CMS functionality

Content owner availability and skill level

Content inventory (cont.)

Develop a “migration map” showing old-to-new file structure, directory structure and permissions (“where”)

Make sure to note which content sets are not to be migrated

Note where content owner permissions and usability of authoring environment necessitate changes in CMS administrative structure/folder hierarchy

Incorporate any changes to file and directory naming into migration map

Migration strategy

Automate it - unless your site is very small You may need to manually migrate pages that are

anomalies or are highly complex Allow extra time for honing migration scripts and

checking/re-checking content quality post-migration Involve business owners in approving quality of content

post-migration; IT likely defines success differently than the business!

Allow time for migration script “hiccups” and manual movement of some files within new directories

Migration strategy (cont.)

Plan for some amount of content clean-up post-migration, and have resources available for: Reformatting Checking links Verifying styles (i.e., if style is not correctly applied to content,

either manually correcting or flagging pages for recoding) Reviewing content location (in CMS) and file names Applying metadata as needed

Content “QA-ers” may be in-house or relatively inexpensive contract/temporary labor

Workflows and access control

Post-migration, double-check that your new structure meets the needs of the business and content editors. Does everyone have access to their sections? Have roles and responsibilities changed for any departments? Are additional approvals required for certain types of content?

Ensure that content managers are trained on the system and understand how/where permissions are applied.

The system should provide intuitive access to various workflows - if these are many and varied, personalized presentation may be required.

Content standards

You will need standards for presentation (design), information architecture and writing.

Ideally, you have defined standards in advance and communicated these to stakeholders and publishers.

If not, figure out which standards are supported by built-in style sheets and supported by limited authoring template capability.

All other standards will need to be clearly documented and communicated - keeping in mind the resources you have available for education and enforcement.

Governance

Work with stakeholders to establish a flexible governance model that is specific to your business

Identify key resources to be involved in an oversight group or committee

Determine how your existing staff will manage and communicate with the publishing community and oversight board

Clearly document roles and responsibilities with IT and other relevant groups, for budgeting and project prioritization purposes

Governance (cont.)

Develop a process for prioritizing CMS projects, including template development, new sites and new functionality, taking into account: Benefit/impact of project (number of customers,

revenue potential, etc.) Size of project - cost, time, resources Complexity of project Competing efforts Other factors (upcoming site changes, emerging

technologies, etc.)

Governance (cont.)

Develop model for making decisions for home page management Content organization on home page - determined by

user preferences and metrics as well as business strategy

Additions/changes to navigation elements on home page

Day-to-day oversight of content submissions and editorial features

Governance (cont.)

Strategy and long-range planning Involve your stakeholders in determining your vision

for the site Agree on a time line for longer-term changes (often

three to five years) Determine your funding model for larger, long-term

projects (often either a chargeback or capital expense) Include a plan for review, updating and modification of

your plan as business conditions will change Make sure IT strategy is in line with business strategy

Lessons learned

“You don’t know what you don’t know” “Breathe into the bag” “The offshore team went over budget” “We did it!”

Conclusion

You can do it, too - just don’t underestimate the effort. Get the support you need early on - both from

stakeholders and management. Above all, remain flexible - this is not the “end,” just a

stop along the way.

Questions/contact

Laura Melcher

E-mail: Lmelcher@realtors.orgOffice phone: 312-329-8572