Controlling Content Migrations

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com
Controlling
Content Migrations
@jdavidhobbs
#CSDC

Controlling
Content Migrations
@jdavidhobbs
#CSDC
Introductions

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

Early strategy
for higher impact across the
entire digital presence
5

Key points
6
• 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 project
And early involvement is key
8

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

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 14http://bit.ly/hobbs-early-report

Think beyond nuclear
and forklift options
A hybrid approach is often best
17

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 18http://bit.ly/hobbs-forklift-nuclear

Middle ground of disruption
usually best
http://bit.ly/hobbs-forklift-nuclear

Understand what you
have
22

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
27

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

#CSDC @jdavidhobbs https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 29http://bit.ly/hobbs-exploding

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View quality in
grayscale
31

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
36

Minimize distance
40

Thanks!• Rapid Assessments
• Estimation
workshops
• Executive decision-
making workshops
• Migration plans
• Rollout plans
• Implementation
strategy
• RFP and vendor
selection

Controlling Content Migrations

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