“Migration” Might be the Most Dangerous Word in CMS

By Deane Barker • • 2 min read •
Author Description

When someone says “migration” in the context of a CMS project, stop everything and make them define exactly what they’re talking about.

AI Summary

This post explores the complexities and risks associated with content management system (CMS) migration. The author emphasizes that migrating content can lead to potential pitfalls, such as data loss and compatibility issues, highlighting the importance of careful planning and execution during the process.

I’m beginning to think that “migration” is one of the most dangerously misinterpreted words in the content management industry. I’ve resolved that whenever this word comes up, all discussion stops until it is defined to the common understanding of all parties.

“Migration,” in the context of this industry commonly means one of two things:

  1. The movement of content from CMS A to CMS B. Both systems exist and are functionally able to support a website – CMS A is supporting your website now, and CMS B has been configured and developed to do so, it just lacks content.

  2. The same as above, but with the important addition that CMS B does not exist yet.

In my experience, consultants generally use the former definition, while customers use the latter. Obviously, this causes significant issues.

There have been several times (a couple of them very recent, hence this post) when a potential customer has asked me, “how much will the content migration cost?” I have provided a number, then realized sometime later – to my horror – that they didn’t just expect content to be moved, they expected their entire new CMS built and configured to support that content.

For those of us in the industry, we would normally call that process an “integration” or “implementation.” But for a customer, they tend to look at the entire process from a much wider perspective, and the entire process of going from old to new is a “migration.” They are migrating their entire content environment – actual words and pictures, but also technical platform and accompanying processes.

Additionally, I find that customers chronically underestimate the work required to integrate a new CMS. Especially with the advent of new drag-and-drop page composition tools, many prospects have been oversold into thinking that CMS-powered websites are a point-and-click affair and can be configured to duplicate their current website functionality in a couple of afternoons.

So, in the future, whenever this word “migration” comes up, I’m going to throw out the analogy of moving from one house to another. Is the second house built and are we just moving your furniture into it? Or does that second house not even exist yet?

Links from this – The Utility of Drag-and-Drop Page Composition in Content Management March 9, 2011
Drag-and-drop page composition has become a key selling feature of content management in recent years. It's impressive, certainly, but useful is it, in reality?