Migration - The Path to…
At the risk of jeopardizing my relationship with some of the people who have bailed out my migration considerably in the last two to three weeks, I attended the “Time to Migrate” session in hopes of hearing a little good news. Sadly, the process for 8x libraries is still largely stuck in a 7x format, with no real evidence of any learning curve or modification of the migration project management structure for 8x issues, setup, or complexities.
The Project Managers are that: detail oriented people with project management skills who are not responsible for the state of the project, the code, the flaws, the delays. They are human beings doing their best to be messengers delivering, frequently, bad news.
I would encourage those who are in migration states at the moment to really press those project managers for a clearer understanding of the 8x process, which is just simply NOT 7x, only a little more complicated. The session was useful to understand how much more needs to be done before more libraries make the plunge off the deep end to 8x. If indeed “This is your system, your path to success”, as Judith Tigner said, it would be great if it felt a little better at the library end doing it. “The key is communication between the project team and the library”, as B rian Hutchins has said, is absolutely true, no argument from me about this. The missing piece appears to be the communication in the company to the migration teams as to what is possible and what is not. Even after working with 8+ betas and a few others now gearing up, the process for the 8x sites still seems very vague and trying to use a 7x model of “upgrade”. If 120 days is the typical timeline for an 8x site, I want to shake the hands of the first 8x site that achieves this.
Those currently in a migration state should demand significantly more accountability, including the ability to log their issues in logx and keep track of them in a mutually dynamic setting to see what both sides are achieving in a step-by-step process. We may drown in setup, but we do not want to drown in emails, notes, and spreadsheets.
Sitting here in my Little America hotel room Friday night, winding down from the conference, watching the Tigers put it to the Yankees (end of 6), thinking about a Horizon 8 migration, and seeing more and more similarity to our move from Dynix to Horizon 7.5 years ago. We signed our contract in October 1998 and went live with Horizon on March 9, 1999. That was a timespan of just less than 5 months. We did it but really wished we had been given another 4-6 weeks. From what I am hearing, the move from Horizon 7 to H8 will be just as complex and daunting as the move from classic Dynix. I would really like to see a 150 day migration calendar for consolidated sites and more than that for consortiums. (6-0 Tigers in the 7th)
I’m projecting we (RCPL) will migrate late in 2007. We need to have as much Acq data as possible come over from H7. Good night all. The real world returns in less than 3 days.
Comment on 7 October 2006 @ 0246