On Monday 11 July the initial transition of academic content to the new website structure began. This is a complex project as 30,000 pages of content are not just being migrated, they are being positioned in a wider more integrated architecture so that information links coherently across the triple helix of the University and where possible is data driven to maintain accuracy.
The transition has been more complex than we had initially anticipated and this has led to colleagues experiencing some real problems with the content and the way the new site works. We knew that there were some risks when we went live and had discussed these with some academic colleagues however there is a lot that still needs to be fixed. Please help us in doing this by continuing to report problems so that we can fix them as quickly as possible.
UEB will also be looking closely at the situation and considering a report of the different options for the project as well as the priority areas for action.
The five main priority areas to be addressed in the first instance are:
- Factual inaccuracy – to correct information that is displaying by addressing these errors through the source systems as soon as they are reported and understanding why gaps have occurred.
- Staff profiles – to continue to investigate and find a resolution to what is causing data import issues. Any problems originating in Pure are being investigated separately. Other profile categories such as Emeritus Professors or visitors are planned for migration in September.
- Groups, centres or institutes – to provide a short term fix to enable missing entities to be shown via a quick link to the pages on the old site which will be available from this week. The long-term solution is to ensure that all these entities are on Pure, an activity which will commence with a pilot in each faculty in September.
- Research projects – to ensure that all those due to be in scope in the initial phase are correctly showing. This work will be complete w/c 2 August. All other research projects that are held on Pure are planned for migration in September.
- System architecture – to check that we have set the architecture for the system correctly.
To summarise, the go-live for this project has not gone as smoothly as we had expected however we are very much committed to addressing all the problems that have arisen and doing so as quickly as possible. We will provide regular updates on our progress with this. Meanwhile, please keep sending us details of problems as you identity them using the dedicated process that logs the issue so that you know it is being addressed: Report a problem or request a change.
Other useful information
The principles behind the design of the new products
