If your project management tool has been in use for seven years and you’re looking to make changes, whether it’s adjustments or bigger changes, there are a few things to consider. If you have been using it frequently, with people coming in weekly or even daily, making changes, making updates, and using the tool, then it’s going to be a lot easier because you know what has already been used and what you can drop. If you haven’t been using it frequently, maybe you haven’t touched it in weeks or months, or you use it sparingly and you know that you cannot trust the information in this tool, you know that you have team members who barely use it, and you haven’t really used it as a source of truth or to track anything, then you have a lot more work to do. Especially if you’ve decided to keep this tool, you might have to start a new workspace and begin moving things over slowly.
But before you move or migrate any of this data, you want to look at a lot of things because there will be a lot of problems. You’re going to look at duplicates and duplicate records. You’re looking at incomplete records or things that were accidentally created, could be activities, projects, tasks, whatever you call them, that were created by mistake. You want to look at them and see how you can clean them up. You might have things like activities, tasks, or whatever that were assigned to former employees but were never reassigned. Those people may have been removed from the tool, and those tasks are now unassigned. Or you didn’t even remove them from the workspace, so they still have access. There’s just a lot to look at. And you do not want to move incorrect data. You cannot start building with a bad foundation. Look at all of these things and see how you can clean up the data as much as possible. But if you have not been using the tool frequently, you cannot trust the information or the data that’s in there. It’s not going to be very useful for you, but it’s going to help the consultant or anyone coming in identify patterns and look at how they can create a better experience. If people have not been using it, they’ll know what to look out for and what to watch out for.
Now, moving on to other areas, when you’re migrating, you’re going to have to do it in phases. You already know the areas, spaces, folders, projects, and campaigns that people were actively using and logging into weekly or bi-weekly. You also know the spaces that haven’t been touched at all, and you can check all of this. Most of these tools allow you to export the data, and you can compare it or simply review it to see what was in use and what areas haven’t been touched at all. Because you’re not going to move something that hasn’t been used unless you plan to refine it and make it easier, more flexible, or simpler for your team members, especially if it’s a critical aspect of the business.