Check List for Upgrading from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6

Includes Upgrading Drupal Modules, Themes, and Site

I am a fan of check lists. They help simplify and improve the effectiveness of repetitive processes over time. The following is a recent check list I shared with a client as a summary of the process used to upgrade from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6. Please feel free to use it and add your own notes.

  1. Together with client identify the list of key content and expected behaviors/displays. Includes any publishing/business logic.
    2. - Should be approximately 30 or so check list items, with accompanying screenshots where appropriate. - This will form the QA test script to confirm the quality of the upgrade and will be the list for acceptance testing.
  2. Duplicate the site, code, db, and files into an upgrade branch on dev server.
  3. Version control all code, db, view exports, ect. throughout the process
  4. Confirm there are no custom hacks on Drupal core.
  5. Run the upgrade process for Drupal Core.
  6. Test
    7. - All steps titled test include some automated testing as well as use of the coder module. - I also just came across the deadwood module. - Test steps also include running through the QA test script when appropriate. - See links below.
  7. Run the upgrade process on views, converting views to views 2
  8. Test
  9. Identify any custom hacks on contrib. modules.
  10. Upgrade contrib. modules which have D6 versions
  11. Test
  12. Identify upgrade paths for non standard modules and those which do not have a d6 version
  13. Code the upgrades and run them
  14. Test (full developer review)
  15. Client QA and site review/Bug fixing Cycle
  16. Prepare deploy plan
  17. Deploy the upgrade on production server
  18. Client QA and site review/Server Configuration and Bug fixing Cycle
  19. Client Acceptance testing (walking through the script), reporting and fixing issues cycle

### Links About Upgrading Drupal

Converting 5.x modules to 6.x - http://drupal.org/node/114774

Updating Drupal Modules to D6 in Three Easy Steps - http://www.webmasterworld.com/content_management/3767426.htm

Coder Module - http://drupal.org/project/coder/

Deadwood - http://drupal.org/project/deadwood - http://boombatower.com/tools/deadwood

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