Moving to a major commerce platform release can be seen as a business growth strategy rather than a risk-avoidance strategy. Thoughtful planning of your upgrade will reduce cost, mitigate risk, and maintain business continuity so that the transition has minimal impact to the overall shopping experience and your bottom line.
If you’re considering an upgrade to Magento 2, here are some tips to consider when establishing your implementation time frame.
Step 4: Time Your Move
Timing is everything – especially when it comes to an eCommerce implementation. As you prepare for your move to Magento 2, don’t underestimate the importance of the following four areas to keep your project on track:
- Project goals and scope
- Corporate objectives
- Proper timing and avoiding conflicts
- Communicating change
Project Goals and Scope
Review your project scope to determine whether you have too many requirements or changes to deliver, and what impact these may have on your business. Consider a more agile method where you can deliver a smaller set of changes, but at a greater frequency, to make an immediate business impact.
Corporate Objectives
When deploying a major software release, such as Magento 2, you also need to think about what else is happening at your company such as:
- What other (if any) technical upgrades are planned or in progress?
- Is your company launching a new product that requires added functionality to support it?
Proper Timing & Avoiding Conflicts
Avoid events (like the holiday shopping season) or seasonality within your business that may delay a deployment or introduce unnecessary risk. Additionally, if your conversion spans several months, you should anticipate intermediate platform releases that may occur during the upgrade. You will want to evaluate each release to make sure the benefits of the new capabilities align with defined corporate objectives.
Notify Important Parties
As the deployment date draws near, communication is essential. If more people know about the change on the horizon, how it will impact them, and how they need to address it, then you’re more likely to have a successful launch. And, don’t be afraid to over-communicate every step of the way – it increases the likelihood of glowing reviews from everyone involved once you go live!
Learn more about how to prepare for your Magento 2 upgrade in our guide, The Ultimate Magento 2 Upgrade Checklist: Four Steps to a Successful Move.
Included within the guide is a comprehensive, actionable checklist to help you through the process that will keep your project on track while allowing you to reap the benefits of out-of-the-box features at a budget-friendly cost.
Or, if you’re ready to make the move to Magento 2, contact us for a personalized assessment. You’ll receive:
- An understanding of how Magento 2 will help your business
- An evaluation of your existing Magento site, including site performance, high-severity issues, and missing Magento patches
- Diagnostic tools to estimate time and resources needed to upgrade
