This slide deck was used as the framework for a lively workshop in Utrecht at Hartman Event 2012. Although most of the value in a tutorial is the interaction / exercises / participant examples, this deck should be useful to others considering a migration. This presentation covers: vision, inventories, controlling quality, distance, and weight (including cutting content), and manual effort estimation.

1. Website Migration Masterclass
Hartman Event 2012 @jdavidhobbs

2. 20
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

3. 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
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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
http://bit.ly/cm-interest
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5. 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
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6. 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
Not just content!
@jdavidhobbs http://hobbsontech.com 6

7. What is a website migration?
The transfer of
content, sites/sections, functionality, team, te
Every
mplates, information architecture, and
relationships from one platform to another –
migration
Website Migration Handbook v2
is
different!
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8. 5
Where are you?
Answer 10 questions to gauge where you
are and where you are going:
http://bit.ly/s-eval
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9. Where are you on the graph?
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10. You are moving
a weight
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11. You are moving
a weight across a distance
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12. You are moving
less distance is preferable
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13. You are moving
less weight is preferable
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14. You should control both
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15. Also control quality
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16. 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
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17. 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?
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18. 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.
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19. 5
Example quality level
Anyone have a sample page for us to
analyze together now?
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20. Standardization scale
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21. DIVING IN: MANUAL EFFORT
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22. Content migration: Automation
http://bit.ly/migauto
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23. Don’t just consider the movement of content –
there are important steps before and after
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24. Use a consistent
approach
to batch content http://bit.ly/panning

25. Except for small
sites, don’t do all
steps for each
content item

26. Content Handling Process
http://bit.ly/contenthandling
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27. 10
Example: Content Handling
• Anyone have a sample content type for us
to analyze together now?
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28. Computing Manual Effort
Manual Effort for Bucket =
Content Count x
(Sort Effort + Place Effort + Edit Effort + Move /
Transform Effort + Enhance Effort + QA Effort)
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29. 15
Individual exercise: estimate
manual effort level
Estimate effort level for a major bucket of
content of your site
Sort Place Edit Move / Enhance QA
Transform
Effort per
page
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30. 15
Collaborative review
• Review your initial estimates
• Discuss opportunities to
streamline, mitigate against risks, and / or
increase quality
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31. @jdavidhobbs http://hobbsontech.com 31

32. 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
Many / most should be inventoried
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33. 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
Pay particular attention to content
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34. 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
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35. 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
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36. Rules-based culling example
Define
Inventory Confirm Implement
Rules
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37. Rules-based culling example
Define
Inventory Confirm Implement
Rules
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
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38. Rules-based culling example
Define
Inventory Confirm Implement
Rules
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39. 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.
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40. One aspect of distance
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41. Controlling Distance
• Phase
• Modify depth of support
• Eliminate functionality entirely
• Concentrate on highest bang for the buck
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42. Planning Process
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43. 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
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44. REMAINING QUESTIONS?
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45. Summary
1. Set your vision
2. Inventory
3. Control quality
4. Control weight and distance
5. Estimate
6. Iterate
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46. Thanks!
• New offering: Five Steps Program
http://hobbsontech.com/five-steps-
program
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