Upgrades

Upgrading a Content Management System (CMS) or Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to the latest release is something we specialise in.

It is true that some upgrades can be significant – particularly if you’re some way behind the latest version. However, in terms of the upgrade process, it’s usually quite straightforward with 3chilllies doing most of the heavy lifting. 

The normal process that we follow when we carry out a CMS upgrade involving a platform like Sitecore, Umbraco or Optimizely can depend on if we built the site, or if it was built by a previous agency. However,  most upgrades follow roughly the same process.

How significant is the upgrade?

CMS upgrades come in all shapes and sizes. There can be some very minor releases that might not warrant the full approach that we outline here. Many CMS providers have also worked to make their upgrades easier and less all-encompassing. However, some upgrades can be more significant, depending on a number of factors:

• There is a major release which is a fundamental change to the structure and coding of the CMS.
• When the gap between releases has been left too long.
• When a CMS has custom code, integrations and other complexities that will make the upgrade less straightforward.
• When there are multiple sites involved.

Upgrade process: Phase 1

An upgrade can bring uncertainty in knowing exactly what is going to be involved and how much needs to be budgeted.

To ascertain exactly what will be involved in an upgrade we always carry out a two-phased approach. Phase 1 is separately invoiced at a reasonable fixed cost and takes between five to ten working days, depending on the complexity of the upgrade and size of the website.

Here a developer takes a fresh cut of a current website onto a local machine and then does what is known as a “brute force upgrade” to install the latest version of the CMS. From this the developer can conduct a really deep dive to see what breaks, what will need fixing and any other issues that need to be ironed out.

We put the results from Phase 1 into a document that will detail exactly what needs doing in order to complete the upgrade, and then we also compile a backlog of tasks within our DevOps environment.

We can then provide a fixed cost for the second phase of the upgrade, knowing what will be involved. This will also include some contingency, should any additional minor issues come out of the woodwork during the upgrade.

This approach provides clients with reassurance on the costs and effort involved. We then issue a new Statement of Work based on its findings. Once this has been signed we can them move onto “phase two” and schedule the actual upgrade.

Upgrade process: Phase 2 - carrying out the upgrade

Generally, the actual upgrade process follows these steps.

We pull down a copy of all the website live databases and create a parallel UAT environment. The existing UAT environment remains running as usual, as there may need to be continuing bug fixes for the existing website, although we advise not to carry out extensive changes.

In the parallel UAT environment we carry out the upgrade, all the testing and remediation of any issues. At this stage there is no involvement from the client, although of course we’ll let you know how it’s going. This can last between a few weeks and a few months.

Once we’ve completed our work, we will then ask you to carry out your own testing on the parallel UAT environment. This is not usually as involved as testing for a new website and is more to check everything is running as expected. This round of testing is usually the major involvement from the client.

Depending on the testing, there may be further changes required, until we reach client UAT sign-off.

Finally, we schedule the actual upgrade to live.