Controlling Content Migrations

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com

ControllingContent Migrations

@jdavidhobbs

#CSDC



@jdavidhobbs

#CSDCIntroductions



@jdavidhobbs

#CSDC

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 4


Early strategyfor higher impact across the

entire digital presence

5


Key points

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• Migration planning fits within broader project

• Think beyond nuclear and forklift options

• Understand what you have

• Use rules rather than case-by-case examination

• View quality in grayscale

• Reduce heft

• Minimize distance


But first… this is interesting

Boring (and less effective) Interesting (and more effective)

Cutting and pasting • Searching for patterns

• Improving your content

One-time exercise • Setting up your long term program

Unending • Develop tracking metrics

Unimportant • Critical to success

http://bit.ly/cm-interest


Migration fits within broader projectAnd early involvement is key

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Stage is set for migration success early & within the broader project

• Defining project concept

• Gathering the right team

• Defining a strong project plan

• Architecting for long term success

• Waiting until migration time is way too late

http://bit.ly/hobbs-migration-checklist


Streamlined changes

are those that the

system (writ large) is

optimized to do

(hopefully strong

content publishing for

example)

Routine work program

makes tweaks to these

systems

One-offs break outside

the normal process

Redesigns make more

substantial changes to

what is already in place

http://bit.ly/hobbs-4-types


Streamlined

• Is something that should be fast

• Is something that is fast

• Clear standards (including

whether to streamline one at all)

• Optimized for quality


• Working on the machinery itself

• Only the next phase is planned

• The schedule for the next phase

is clear

http://websiteproductmanagement.com


Streamlined

• Is something that should be fast

• Is something that is fast

• Clear standards (including

whether to streamline one at all)

• Optimized for quality


• Working on the machinery itself

• Only the next phase is planned

• The schedule for the next phase

is clear

The goal is often to optimize something

http://websiteproductmanagement.com

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 13http://websiteproductmanagement.com

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Think beyond nuclear and forklift optionsA hybrid approach is often best

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Middle ground of disruption usually best

http://bit.ly/hobbs-forklift-nuclear



Understand what you have

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An inventory is an exploration

http://bit.ly/rethinkinventory


An inventory for migration is for making decisions

http://bit.ly/rethink-ci

Lots of different types of information can be useful:

• Dates (like last update)• Usage (like Google Analytics)• Technical information (like usage of headers)• Ownership • File and content types• Aggregated information (like section size)


Ideally an inventory is interactive

25http://bit.ly/hobbs-dynamic-inventory


Inventories are not mind-numbing

• Consider multiple sources of data

• Slice and dice the inventory

• For large digital presences, consider site inventories as well

• Topic inventories

• Image aspect ratios

• Quality of the inventory

• Sources of data

26http://bit.ly/rethink-ci


Use rules vs. case-by-case review

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Case by case or rules?

Case by case Rules

Slow Fast

Difficult to get buy-in / the loudest or

group with most resources wins

Get agreement first and then

everyone does work separately

Minimal bearing re: post-launch

treatment of content

Could be applied on ongoing basis

Could have very different results

across a large site

Could be much more consistent

More difficult / impossible to chunk

work

Possible to find patterns to speed up

and break down work (potentially

for better automation)

Difficult to explain to visitors

consistently

Opportunities to better explain to

visitors

http://bit.ly/panning

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View quality in grayscale

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You are in control

http://bit.ly/hobbs-control-knobs


Some components of quality

http://bit.ly/hobbs-quality-and-migration

• How structured the content is

• Whether assets that make up a piece of content are each managed or if for example it's all just handcoded in HTML (which is highly related to the above, but different)

• Editorial quality that only people can really ascertain like voice

• Whether the content effectively applies a taxonomy

• More mechanical writing quality like spelling and grammer

• Visual design quality like spacing

• How actionable the content is (how sharable it is)

• How scannable the content is

• How reflowable the content is (for example for differently-sized displays)

• How well the content integrates with other relevant systems (for example passing effective data to site analytics)

• How consistent the content is across the repository

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 34http://bit.ly/contenthandling



Reduce heft

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Minimize distance

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Thanks!• Rapid Assessments

• Estimation

workshops

• Executive decision-

making workshops

• Migration plans

• Rollout plans

• Implementation

strategy

• RFP and vendor

selection

Controlling Content Migrations

Technology