Migrating To OpenOffice .org

Commercial Open Source Software: Migrations
OpenOffice.org Migration
Roberto Galoppini

Visual Agenda

Reasons to change

False problems

Communication

Outsiders matter

No big-bang, please..

Reasons to change
Among top reasons to change:
Technical motivations
Legal motivations
Economical motivations
Social motivations

“Supposed problems”
Migrations involving end-users are not just a technical issue. Literature about OpenOffice.org migrations often mentions the following “problems”:
Functions are “missing” (read they are somewhere)
OpenOffice Data format (ODF) are not spread
Layout differences
There is no documentation ( see amazon )
There is no (commercial) support

Issues to be addressed
Migrations are never for free:
Technological impact
Managing formats & interoperability (R/W/RW patterns) ‏
Documents’ Conversion
Interoperability issues
Psychological impact
Need to learn to use a new tool ( what about office 2007 ?)
Motivational issues
Inertia to change
Frustraction

Migration project GANTT Analysis Deployment Training Support and Maintenance Uninstall MS Office Model Migration Comunication

Analysis
Analysis is aimed at addressing the following issues:
Organizational Assessment (Identify Decision makers, Organizational Units, etc)
Document walk-through (automatic, sampling, pattern r/w/rw, legal aspects)
Hardware/Software survey (compatibility, needed functions, architecture review) ‏
Goals:
Define a ready-to-go project
Pilot plan definition
Migration guide-line definition

Analysis :: Organizational Assessment
Goals:
Identify homogenous class of users
Identify organizational units responsibles
Find technological leaders (“champions”) ‏
Understand interchange of data among O.U.
Understand external interchange of data

Analysis :: Documents’ walkthrough
Documents’ walkthrough will help to:
Evaluate issues related to documents' formats
Templates evaluation and (re) definition
Identify best training patterns

Analysis :: Data collection
Questionnaires will gather information to understand:
Microsoft office’s mode of employ
Numbers and categories of documents
“Critical” documents
Investigate Internal/External interoperability

Analysis :: Choices
At the end of the analysis some choices are needed:
Define migration target (expectations/budget trade-off, good-will, etc)
Manage Critical issues (requirements coverage assessment: make/buy/redefine)
Tools selections (Open Source if possible, of course!)
Define Support required (related to dimensions, users clustering, statistics)

Communication
It is mandatory, and it requires:
Top Management commitment
Trade Unions commitment
“Champions” commitment
Internal Marketing (motivational training)

Communication :: Internal Marketing
It consists of:
Portal (intranet with wikis, blogs, etc) ‏
Software Customization (personalised version of OOo)
Software distribution (also outside of the company!)
Stimulate “peer learning” (champions’ role is key!)
Keep people informed, about processes and tools

Documents and Templates Migration
It could be easier than expected:
It is an organizational opportunity (templates, flows, etc)!
Document management opportunity (file servers, etc)
Archiving “old” documents as read-only (don’t need to migrate all of them!)

Deployment
Installation and configuration.
Customized installation
“Critical” workstations availability (you likely need them!)
Extensions’ attribution
Move to new formats (burn the boats!)

Deployment :: (Dis)installation
The migration will take place step by step (big-bang simply doesn’t work) .
At a certain date it must be effective .
Only where and if necessary some desktops will stay .

Training
Is the most visible activity.
Motivational, especially for responsibles and champions
Advanced for Champions and call center operators
Educate everyone about interoperability issues
Differentiated, from basic to very advanced
Training program should consider second editions

Maintenance and Support
Help users with technical and not technical problems. Never let them alone..
Zero level support: intranet (documentation, how-to, faq, news, wiki, etc) ‏
Peer support and champions support
First level support: call center
Second level support: (phone and/or on-site) ‏
The portal plays a very important role here..

Conclusions
A migration is a process, not a tool.
Don’t underestimate Psychological impact of change
Don’t leave them alone, never
Motivate through speeches, help on a practical ground
Training and support are key
Users need answer, fast!

Anteprima a OpenOffice.org 2.0 Thank you! Roberto Galoppini http://robertogaloppini.net [email_address]

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Migrating To OpenOffice .org

by Roberto Galoppini on Nov 13, 2007

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Migrating To OpenOffice .org — Presentation Transcript