Welcome to my Mini-Series! In my Mini-Series, I take you through the steps required to perform a Sitecore upgrade. Use this Mini-Series to help empower your business with the latest version of Sitecore!
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Sitecore Upgrades: A Mini-Series Part 3 Sitecore.Config Patching
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Sitecore Upgrades: A Mini-Series Part 4 ORM and Other Dependency Updates
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Sitecore Upgrades: A Mini-Series Part 5 Dependency Injection Changes
How long does it take to upgrade?
The path to upgrading your solution is unique. It’s your own custom solution, after all. Listed below is how long each phase will likely take where one sprint is two weeks. The more complex the solution, however, the longer the upgrade will take.
- Investigation – 1 sprint
- Database Upgrades – 1 sprint
- Sitecore.Config Patching – 1 sprint
- Dependency Injection Changes – 1 sprint
- ORM and Other Dependency Updates – 2 sprints
- Infrastructure Setup – 2 sprints
- Testing and Bug Remediation – 2 sprints
At the beginning of the upgrade, you will want to spend two weeks making decisions on how you will do the upgrade. This investigation phase should include what dependencies you want to remove/upgrade, what your infrastructure will look like, etc. You will also need to spend at least to set up your infrastructure and deal with the myriad of user access issues, whitelisting IPs, etc. Your investigation phase will determine whether you’re retaining your current infrastructure, shifting to Azure PaaS, shifting to SaaS, or even moving to containerized environments.
You will also want to have test users go into the site to find bugs once the upgraded solution is deployed. They will be crucial in finding incorrect behaviors for the new version of the site. If you are switching search providers for your solution, you should tack on another sprint or two to your timeline. All in all, I would suggest a 4-month period to have a completely successful upgrade with bugs ironed out.
