Completion Report

Project Summary:

The scope of this project was to support the outputs from UWP009 project: Polopoly code extraction, editorial tasks in XML stage, Drupal Migration Module (Image, Content, Menu Structure) and Creation of new Migrations  :

and to deliver technical development where required in order to assist with the Polopoly migration to EdWeb for the releases being developed via UWP006 New University-wide Web CMS project

Items Deemed Out of Scope

• Any websites which were not held on Polopoly
• This project would not develop any CMS functionality
• Removal of content from Polopoly

Objectives

The objective of this project was to deliver the auto-migration process of websites currently hosted in Polopoly to the new EdWeb CMS. All selected content to be migrated into existing EdWeb structures or as content in a format that would reduce post migration editorial overhead.

From project questionnaire completed for project closure, the key message from stakeholders involved with the project has been positive -

'This has been an excellent project. The project has been very well managed throughout and is a good example of how various teams across ISG can work together to achieve technically complex objectives. Well done to everyone involved!'

Deliverables

• Business Analysis of website content to identify where bespoke development was required
• Develop code solutions for site content migration, JIRAs raised and either fixed or deemed not necessary for migrations
• Automated content migration - If during migration a feature on page was not delivered, it was manually completed by the UWP business team.
• All identified and confirmed website migrations to EdWeb from Polopoly
• Also included zope migration to Edweb for School of Geosciences
• Build of TEST MIGRATE environment which was integral to the migration process
• Updated Technical Handbook completed by IS Apps development resource
• Updated Customer Handbook completed by UWP

Benefits

• Re-usable migration tool for various types of sites and which can be utlised for future migrtaion to Central
• Automated migration of websites, where possible
• Websites migrated more quickly, more consistently and for less cost than comparative manual methods
• Reduce error rates
• Rationalisation of polopoly sites and site reviews completed - circa 380 Poloploy Sites reducing down to 265 EdWeb Websites

Success Criteria

• All polopoly sites identified and allocated / confirmed migration slots by October 2015
• All polopoly sites migrated and siwtched to Live by April 2016
• Migration completed, where possible, via automated EdWeb (Drupal) migration module
• Migration completed with minimal impact to site owners and no downtime for sites
• Increased automation per migration phase

Original delivery plan

Analysis of Resource Usage:

Staff Usage Estimate: 202 days

Staff Usage Actual: 350 days

Staff Usage Variance: 73%

Other Resource Estimate: 0 days

Other Resource Actual: 0 days

Other Resource Variance: 0%

Explanation for variance:

• The UWP programme requested additional support from the Project Manager to cover for co-ordination role in addition to UWP010 Project Manager role = 24 days

  • The role of Migration Co-ordinator covered the following areas of responsibility: 1) Responsibility for planning the site migrations including any re-planning (continuation of Business Project Manager's role to date) 2) Assign Migration Liaison Officer per site 3) Oversee communications with site owners 4) Ensure that comms between migration development work and migration plan were in sync.

• At the end of migration phase 3, a review of the remaining 2 migration phases was undertaken. The outcome was to replan the migration allowing breaks in between the larger sites.  This will reduce the impact should a delay with the migration of one or several site occur. The additional 5 days cover the work undertaken to replan phases 4 and 5.
• Inclusion of an additional environment TEST Migrate which was utilised to provide early migration for Information Services to view EdWeb Sites and then repurposed into the migration testing cycle for remaining sites

• Allocation of project funding for the remaining migrations to be completed, as previously noted in the Project Brief funding would be required from annual planning proposals for 15/16 funding. 100 days effort added to the project.

• Rescheduled delivery plan to accommodate UWP Editorial team resources restrictions

• An extensive exercise was completed by the Migration Liasion Officers to reschedule sites to accommodate this hiatus, in both release 4 and 5, which would result in an extension of project milestones for these releases and project closure date. The review was also required to ensure the correct level of UWP editorial effort would be available to cover the number of sites being migrated in these two releases (4 & 5) which were at the start of the project circa. 170 and 70 respectively. The original number of sites (at August 2014) to be migrated were estimated as 320 however the actual position had increased to 394 with 104 having been migrated at that point in time. With the change to milestones, this resulted in an impact on project funding with an additional 11 days increasing budget for 15/16 from 100 days to 111 days.
• Additional 5 funded days from School of Geosciences to assist their zope migration into Central - 116 days for 15/16

Original Split of Days Across Releases

Actual Split of Days Across Releases

Actual Project Spend 14/15 (IS Apps) = 243 days

Actual Project Spend 15/16 (IS Apps) = 107 days

Total Project Spend (IS Apps) = 350 days

Key Learning Points:

Communication

• Regular focused meetings
• Good communication with site owners was essential. Good relationships had already been built with the web publishing community - especially building up to the migration – which helped the success of the project.
• Who attended the weekly meeting changed throughout the project to make sure the right people met. This had a very positive effect on the project by ensuring good communication.
• The project documentation e.g. the wiki pages for the migration tracker were a very good compliment to the migration liaison wiki pages.
• Having a separate HipChat room also helped communication.
• Use wiki for migration information e.g. migration checklists and migration tracker provided ease of access of information.

Collaboration

• Positive, collaborative atmosphere
• This project was important for the University and for IS in terms of how we dealt with the end user community. We relied on College and School staff to migrate a lot of their own content into Polopoly and it was more expensive and lower quality than what we've done for EdWeb. This project provided a great platform for setting up the service and collaboration that embody what the EdWeb idea and ideals are all about. Was very glad to see it happen this way.
• The project is a great example of collaborative working among not only various teams within and across ISG but also with site owners across the University and must be seen as an exemplar in this respect.
• UWP team working closely with Technology Management on redirects and VARNISH encouraged team work and sharing of experience.

Effective team think / team work

• Openness to review and improvement
• High levels of commitment on all sides
• Given the duration and scope this has been a remarkably smooth project.

Managing Risk & Issues / Business Impact

• Avoiding business critical times created a large overhead but was worth it in terms of how smoothly the project went.
• Some issues e.g. problems with the infrastructure threatened delays to the schedule but were mitigated by having 2 very comprehensive review sessions. We cooperated well as a team to find solutions (introducing contingency breaks, lengthening the migration timeslot etc.)
• Although the contingency breaks were rarely needed it had a very positive effect on the project by reducing the stress and pressure of constantly delivering to deadlines.
• Use of project Hipchat room provided easier communication and resolution of issue quickly.
• Having a team working on the same thing at the same time allowed issues to be fixed without delays
• Working with UWP and IS development team at their location helped build up collaborative working and resolution of issues.

Continuous Migration Process Improvement

• Some of the processes within the migration project could have worked better but efforts were made to address this as the project progressed.

Outstanding issues:

• UNIDESK call [ I160422-0374] raised to complete remaining VARNISH redirects / Polopoly / Apache - due to resource leave call raised for completion on 12th May. Call completed as planned on 12th May.
• Also migration tidy up script to be tested in Staging prior to project close with deployment to Live expected 16th May to coincide with UWP011 activity. Project manager of UWP011 has agreed for live activity to be managed within this project to allow UWP010 to close. This script would be used if further website were to be migrated into Central, this could be used for a future project.