Redesigning your site or migrating to a new CMS? The size of your site matters in how you plan for it. Do you have a complex site? Answer these four questions (don't worry if you don't know the exact numbers):

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Obviously, the calculator above is not comprehensive, but hopefully it gets to the how complex, broadly speaking, your site is. The questions attempt to use fairly objective measures. If the calculator shows your site as simple but you know that you have underlying complexities that the questions do not capture, then of course take that into account. For example, this does not cover extensive content re-use, which is a bit less objective to add in a simple calculator (re-use means different things to different people) but important to complexity.

A quick note: if your site is simple, then congratulations! This is something to be proud of, since you have a site that is relatively easy to manage and maintain at a high quality. That said, obviously some sites just are more complex than others, so if your site is complex then that is entirely valid as well. The point of this article is to point out that the complexity of your site should drive how you plan and run the migration. See The Web Diet for ideas on how to slim down your site.

Why Site Complexity Matters

The complexity of a site is often implied in discussions, but this can obscure core requirements. For example, the majority of CMS discussions are probably of the Joomla vs. Wordpress (or pick your other favorite) variety. Big picture, this is appropriate since most sites are simple. If your site is simple (like this Hobbs On Tech web site is), then by all means launch into these discussions. Or just pick the system that all your friends are using. That said, if you have a complex site, then you probably need to consider other platforms and also use a more rigorous CMS selection process. If over the weekend for a personal site you were talking about Drupal vs. Joomla, then you may be tempted to apply that same discussion to your company's site with hundreds of thousands of pieces of content in multiple languages. The discussion / approach will need to be different for a complex sites.

Similarly, the complexity of your site impacts your implementation approach. If you have a complex site, then a rigorous process is key. For a simple site, perhaps no real process is needed at all.

Process for the Complex, Large Site

Implementing a complex site requires the most planning and coordination. There are just more moving parts and relationships to manage. For example, widely communicating a compelling vision is key for a complex site, since there are more people to communicate with, coordinate, and set expectations with. Similarly, clearly planning (and, again communicating the plan) is essential since the project is naturally more risky. Aside from the obvious reason of there being more to design, any ambiguities can quickly explode into major issues. For example, if you do not define core functionality clearly (let's say how content is re-used), then it can be implemented differently by different developers for various sections of the site. This ends up being even more complexity to manage, and an albatross that can weigh down future enhancements. Also, management items such as defining the metrics to track migration are even more important since there are more people to align. The complex, large site should consider following all the steps in this interactive checklist.

Process for the Simple Site

Assuming it fits with the vision, one of the keys of a simple site is to make sure it stays simple. This may be as simple as just being very diligent about the simplicity, or, for slightly larger sites, putting some sort of process in place about how changes are made to the site. In general, the simple site can concentrate on the why and what of the site, and not the how (see more about the why, what, and how of implementations). That's the reason so much discussion is about what the site should look like (for example, designing the look of a site) and much less on how to implement. So a simple site still needs to define the design, functionality, and IA (although perhaps not as deeply), but probably does not need to define the metrics to track a migration or have a pilot (or communicate progress during the migration). Also, automation in the migration is much less important.

Process for the Medium-sized site

Deciding how to plan for a medium-sized site implementation is probably the least obvious. Obviously, the *why* (vision) and *what* (IA, design, functionality) has to be defined. The *how* is the most interesting. If you are attempting a bold new direction for your site (rather than more superficial changes), then you may need to follow all the items on this checklist. In particular, a change in direction may mean that a pilot is particularly important. The breadth of functionality / relationships will also drive whether defining metrics to track the migration is important (if your site has a lot of pages but no other complexity, then a simple tracking of pages may be sufficient). A major consideration is how many internal stakeholders you have, which will impact how carefully you have to communicate / train. This, along with how much is to be migrated, will also impact how much attention needs to be paid to the estimation of staff resources required.