mastering sharepoint migration planning

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Mastering SharePoint

Migration Planning Christian Buckley

[email protected]

@buckleyPLANET



My Background

Christian Buckley, Director of Product Evangelism at Axceler

• Most recently at Microsoft

• Microsoft Managed Services (now BPOS-Dedicated)

• Advertising Operations, ad platform API program

• Prior to Microsoft, was a senior consultant, working in the software, supply

chain, and grid technology spaces focusing on collaboration

• Co-founded and sold a collaboration software company to Rational

Software. Also co-authored 3 books on software configuration management

and defect tracking for Rational and IBM

• At another startup (E2open), helped design, build, and deploy a

SharePoint-like collaboration platform (Collaboration Manager), managing

deployment teams to onboard numerous high-tech manufacturing

companies, including Hitachi, Matsushita, Seagate, Nortel, Sony, and Cisco

• I live in a small town just east of Seattle, have a daughter in college and 3

boys at home, and I just celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary



Axceler Overview

• Improving Collaboration for 16+ Years – Mission: To enable enterprises to simplify, optimize, and

secure their collaborative platforms

– Delivered award-winning administration and migration software since 1994

– Over 2,000 global customers

• Dramatically improve the management of SharePoint

– Innovative products that improve security, scalability, reliability, “deployability”

– Making IT more effective and efficient and lower the total cost of ownership

• Focus on solving specific SharePoint problems (Administration & Migration)

– Coach enterprises on SharePoint best practices

– Give administrators the most innovative tools available

– Anticipate customers’ needs

– Deliver best of breed offerings

– Stay in lock step with SharePoint development and market trends



• The iceberg

• The onion

• The carton of milk

Migration Cliché’s




[email protected] 425.246.2823 @buckleyplanet http://buckleyplanet.net

This is your technical

migration, i.e. the

physical move of

content and “bits”

Cliché #1





Cliché #2





Cliché #3



What motivates migration?

• Platform

• Upgrade

• Cost-savings

• Technology-driven

• Platform

• Features

• Technology-driven

• Business value

• Vision

• Operational goals

• Business value



Why are migrations difficult?

Migrations are phased

• Should not be determined by the technology you use

• Match the needs and timing of your content owners and teams

• Be flexible, moving sites and content based on end user needs, not the limitations of the technology

Migrations are iterative

• Planning should not be limited by the number of migration attempts you make, or by the volume of content being moved

• Recognize the need to test the waters, to move sites, content and customizations in waves

• Allow users to test and provide feedback

Migrations are error prone

• There is no “easy” button for migration

• You can run a dozen pre-migration checks and still run into problems

• Admins and end users do things that are not “by the book”

• Watch for customizations, 3rd party tools, and line of business apps that run under the radar

Migrations are not the end goal

• Proper planning and change management policies will help you to be successful with your current and future migrations

• Your goals should be a stable environment, relevant metadata, discoverable content, and happy end users



Why do migrations fail?

Why do SharePoint deployments fail?

Wrong question.

Right question.



A general lack of planning

But we planned this for weeks…

Did you involve your end users?

Did you identify the key use

cases, and prioritize them?

Did you make the process iterative,

folding what you learned back into

your migration activities?

Sort of.

No.

Um...



• Map out the existing environment

• Understand the business priorities

• Model your planned environment

• Run a detailed discovery of what should be migrated

• Conduct detailed capacity planning

• Identify roles and responsibilities

• Understand your audience and topology

• Analyze usage and activity

• Know your storage needs

• Track and plan for each customization

• Create a detailed migration schedule

• Organize granular requirements by team

• Plan to migrate or index file shares

• Replace third party tools with out-of-the-box

functionality

• Create or refine your metadata and taxonomy

• Map content to new information architecture

• Cleanup permissions

• Optimize information architecture for search

• Stage your platform for migration

• Coordinate with your operations team

• Roll out new features

• Plan for where and when to involve the users

• Develop and track key performance indicators

• Train your end users on new functionality

Where should you focus?

• Update the look and feel

• Create an audit process for ongoing maintenance

• Develop a back up and disaster recovery plan

• Update systems to latest builds and service packs

• Establish a sound governance model

• Identifies throttles and limitations

• Understand and plan for new functionality

• Focus on functionality, then look and feel

• Develop a communication strategy

• Create a governance website

• Run PreUpgradeCheck a few dozen times

• Have an anti-virus and maintenance plan

• Plan for migration from other ECM platforms

• Consolidate or reduce the number of SharePoint

versions supported

• Understand performance metrics for the system

• Know your stakeholders

• Assign metadata to the new information architecture

• Develop a detailed test plan

• Get signoff on all major design and architectural

decisions

• Decide where and when to use end users

• Establish strong change management policies

• Expand the footprint to mobile or the cloud

• Understand and focus on the organizational vision



My Entirely New Cliché



• Scope

• Process

• Data layer

• Transformation

• Continuous improvement

5 Steps to Mastering Migration Planning

…or better stated, 5 areas of focus that will help your

overall SharePoint deployment to be successful



1. Understand the scope



Is it better to ask users what they

want or need before introducing a

new technology,

or to demonstrate the new

technology and then ask them what

they want or need?



What is your role?

How do you accomplish your job today?

What is currently automated, and how?

Are there gaps in your business processes?

Can these be solved through process, or do

they require technology?

Where is the business experiencing pain?

Ask the questions



Build the use cases

• Role-specific

• Keep them simple

• Don’t make

judgment calls,

just identify them



Prioritize the actions



• Incorporate feedback

from the team

• Clearly define and

publish the criteria

• Consistently review

• Keep a running list

• Build out quickly and test

• Be flexible

Refine the scope



• As part of your discovery process,

conduct an overall health check

– Usage / Activity

– Permissions

– Storage

– Audit

– Performance

Where to start?



2. Focus on the process



Common Project Methodology



The more you involve your

end users, the more likely they

are to accept the end result



Example - Rational Unified Process

1. Develop iteratively, with risk as the

primary iteration driver

2. Manage requirements

3. Employ a component-based

architecture

4. Model software visually

5. Continuously verify quality

6. Control changes

Development Framework

End Users help identify

priorities, problem areas

Provide requirements

Help define components

Review designs

Test, provide feedback

Use the product, identify

technical issues



• Requirements / scope document

• Project plan

• Communication plan

• Test plan

• Governance plan

– Enterprise governance

– IT governance

– SharePoint governance

– Site-level governance

• Outline of key roles and responsibilities

• Change management process

Know your key artifacts



RACI format

Responsible

Accountable

Consulted

Informed

OARP format

Owner

Approver

Reviewer

Participant

Make assignments



Build a test plan

Clearly define roles

and responsibilities

and time estimates

Assign roles

Give recognition

Test early, test often



Iterate



3. Outline the information layer



• Clean up content types

• Understand navigation

• Organize metadata

• Prepare for Managed Metadata

• Optimize for search

• Consolidate templates

Know your information architecture



Tier 1 site collections

based on business

units or product areas

Top level portal

Tier 2 sites that follow

specific structure



• Understand what is out there

• Who owns the content?

• Does it need to be moved?

• Does it need to be indexed/searchable?

• Is the folder structure important?

• Do you need to maintain historic metadata?

Get organized



4. Migrate and transform



5. Set up a process of

continual improvement



What’s your culture of change?

“Even those who fancy themselves the most progressive

will fight against other kinds of progress, for each of us

is convinced that our way is the best way.“

— Louis L'Amour

• Understand your corporate culture before you try to change anything

• Explain what it is you’re trying to do, and get end users onboard

• In addition to executive buy in, you need your end users to buy in



• Christian Buckley [email protected] +1 425-246-2823 @buckleyPLANET buckleyPLANET.com

• Additional Resources available

– 11 Strategic Considerations for SharePoint Migrations http://bit.ly/j4Vuln

– The Insider’s Guide to Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 http://bit.ly/mIpOBZ

– Why Do SharePoint Projects Fail? http://bit.ly/d1mJmw

– What to Look for in a SharePoint Management Tool http://bit.ly/l26ida

– The Five Secrets to Controlling Your SharePoint Environment http://bit.ly/kzdTjZ

– ReadyPoint (free) http://bit.ly/gGXIPO

– Davinci Migrator http://bit.ly/ieZ5L8

– echo for SharePoint 2007 http://bit.ly/iwfl3f

Contact me

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.buckleyplanet.com/

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