In this blog, I will explain the importance of collaboration in a content migration project and offer some tips on how to encourage collaboration with the business.
It pays to collaborate
Most content migrations will impact the business. And in theory, all should benefit the business. I have found that content migrations are more successful when the business is a collaborative partner, rather than a “customer”.
So why not work with the business pre-migration to identify some common goals and create a shared purpose? If you don’t, then there is a risk that any collaboration will either wane or simply stop at the boundary of the delivery team and close stakeholders. And you won’t enjoy the benefit of strengthening the relationship between IT and the rest of the business.
There is an argument that collaborating increases work tasks, timelines and costs. And that can be true. However, strong leadership and experience can mitigate this. Also, “imposed” migrations can carry hidden costs such as impacting the business’s schedules, creating downtime at inconvenient points, and not taking the disruptive impact on people into account.
We are having a migration. Everyone’s invited!
Migrations can involve thousands of people. No one expects you to treat each of them as though they are on the delivery team. But you can treat them as equal stakeholders by being open and honest with them, communicating, being inclusive, selling the benefits, asking for feedback, and demonstrating that you are listening.
Invite people to raise concerns and challenges. Encourage them to work with you to mitigate or resolve them. Good collaboration will make everyone feel confident that the migration will run smoothly and that their needs are being considered.
There are lots of ways to encourage collaboration
Here are some practical tips:
- Recruit business champions – Include people from across the business to represent the business.
- Be available – Host sessions with the business. This doesn’t always need to be with the senior leadership team. Encourage a culture where more junior members can attend.
- Include the business when problem solving – Ask for the business’s support and suggestions in addressing issues.
- Avoid misunderstandings – Build trust by being open, honest, and tactfully direct when describing the benefits and issues with migration. Don’t hide the truth, even by omission. It takes time to build trust, but it can be lost instantly.
- Communicate lessons learned – Demonstrate a willingness to improve and invite the business to contribute.
- Work together—Collaborate on joint tasks, such as data mappings, communication, and training. Demonstrate your willingness to collaborate to achieve the best outcomes.
- Use direct collaboration tools – Compared to the many great communication and collaboration tools being used for personal and business use, email can feel impersonal and out of touch. Use direct collaboration tools when you can.
- Divide and conquer—Create an online space for each business area (or however you split the migration) and invite the business to collaborate directly with you in this space.
- Meet the business’s needs—Visibly ask about business priorities. Work with the champions to balance business and migration needs and timelines.
- Circulate your stand-ups and end-of-phase reviews – Record these sessions. Share them widely so that everybody in the business who is impacted has visibility on progress and how issues are being dealt with.
- Use a RACI matrix – Publish RACIs during each migration phase, showing how the champions and business leaders fit into the project.
Previous blog: Communication – Why it is an important part of any content migration process.
Next up: Training – How to ensure the business is ready for the change coming their way.
If you have a question for Chris or the Triad team, please get in touch.
