TDX knowledge base migration 72% complete after week-long build sprint

This article was originally published in the April 1, 2022 IT Weekly.

The TeamDynamix Service Catalog and Knowledge Management Team completed a week-long build sprint last Friday, March 25, migrating more than 200 pages of help content from WebCMS into TDX. This effort took more than 300 person-hours to accomplish, a goal that otherwise would have taken months to complete alongside normal duties. 

A major challenge in the TeamDynamix Service Catalog & Knowledge Management migration has been finding the time to move content from WebCMS into TDX. When the team migrated the service catalog content, they did it manually to apply a new template and organize the content according to new user-friendly categories. However, due to ongoing time constraints, migrating and enhancing these 135 pages took the development team about three months. 

When planning to migrate 285 help pages, the team knew they would need to change tactics if they wanted the knowledge base to be live before the Fall 2022 semester. Leigh Casal, scrum leader, suggested that they conduct a “build sprint” modeled after the OHIO IT Knowledge Management project team’s successful design sprint. Over several weeks, the team planned for the build sprint, including training additional OIT employees to help for the sprint’s duration. 

On Monday, March 21, the build sprint began, with the stretch goal of migrating the most complex 72 percent of the help content. This effort involved disentangling content redisplayed in multiple locations, breaking up content into smaller, more easily consumed help articles, and rearranging content so that it fit new templates. Some of the larger service offerings had 20-45 pages of content to migrate. 

During daily retrospectives, build sprint participants consistently highlighted: 

1. Having a time devoted singularly to working on the migration increased the velocity and the quality of their work.
2. Working in-person at the Ridges flexspace made synchronous communication and collaboration easier and more effective. 

“It was nice to get to know and work with people in OIT that I don’t normally work with,” said Jessica Shuler, Application Support Analyst and build sprint participant. “I believe, because we were all from different parts of OIT, and having different backgrounds, we were able to blend that knowledge together to create a broader range for our knowledge base.”  

By 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 25, the build sprint goal was reached: the most complex 205 pages had been migrated and approved, representing over 300 person-hours of effort.

Special thanks to the build sprint participants: Levi Cunningham, Tyler Hatfield, Leslie Reichbaum, Brandon Russell, Jessica Shuler, and Lindsey Ward, as well as to the TDX Service Catalog & Knowledge Management development team: Leigh Casal, Julie Chiki, Joy Cobb, Laurie Griffin, Cortney Hill, Liz Murphy, Ross Shaffer, Cody Sigmon, and Nicole Wires.

What comes next?

We intend for the service catalog and knowledge base to be rolled out to the OHIO community well before the fall semester, with preview access for OHIO IT coming soon. 

Permissions are still being ironed out for the Service Catalog in TDX, which was previewed in the March 17 OHIO IT Updates meeting. Once permissions are set and content has been finalized, OHIO IT will be able to view the new Service Catalog in TDX, hopefully by mid-April.  

For the knowledge base, the remaining lower complexity help articles will be migrated over the next few two-week sprints, and the development team will review and finalize all knowledge base content for publication. We will share over the coming months an updated timeline for when the knowledge base will be made viewable by OHIO IT, as well as how to attend training on TDX knowledge management.