Migrating your Sitecore backend to WordPress

As your frontend engineers work on migrating your Sitecore instance’s frontend to WordPress, have a team of backend engineers work on migrating the backend.

If you return to your discovery findings, you’ll see exactly what entails in migrating the backend from Sitecore to WordPress. Your findings will translate to backend work like:

Installing plugins to add the desired functionalities
Choose from existing plugins to replicate Sitecore features.

Alternatively, coding plugins for features that aren’t available
Develop custom plugins to meet specific requirements.

Mapping content formats
Identify and align the different content types from Sitecore to WordPress (e.g., pages, posts, custom post types).

Mapping taxonomies
Recreate the category and tag structures to ensure content is organized appropriately.

Implementing user management systems (roles and permissions)
Set up user roles and capabilities to manage content access and editing permissions.

Implementing Digital Asset Management (DAM)
Organize and manage media files effectively, either using WordPress’s built-in media library or through a dedicated DAM plugin.

Building integrations with third-party solutions
Connect WordPress with external tools such as CRMs, marketing automation platforms, or analytics services.

Recreating workflow processes
Implement workflows for content creation, approval, and publishing that align with your previous Sitecore setup. Also recreate any other workflows that you may have identified during discovery.

Setting up SEO configurations
Install and configure WordPress SEO plugins to manage metadata, sitemaps, and other search engine optimization settings.

Adding analytics tracking
Integrate tools like Google Analytics or other tracking solutions to monitor site performance and user behavior on your WordPress stack.

Implementing custom post types and fields
Use custom post types to handle any specialized content requirements. 

And so on.

Also, while your frontend and backend engineers focus on their respective development areas, you can have a dedicated migration engineer working in parallel on the content migration process. 

For instance, once your backend engineer has completed mapping taxonomies and configuring user roles and capabilities, the migration engineer can begin transferring taxonomies and user data from Sitecore to WordPress.

Similarly, as your frontend engineer progresses with mapping Sitecore content structures to WordPress, you can start migrating the actual site content. This process may involve a mix of manual and automated methods (like scripts), depending on the type of content being moved. The migration engineer can collaborate with the frontend team to ensure that the content accurately aligns with the new WordPress layout and structure.

When your backend engineers finalize the DAM (Digital Asset Management) implementation, the migration engineer can take over the task of transferring media files.

You get the drift.

Here’s a snapshot of how your Sitecore to WordPress development roadmap can look like:

Week	Backend and Feature Development		Frontend Theme Development		Migration
	Engineer 1	Engineer 2	Engineer 1	Engineer 2	Engineer 1
1	-Plugin Skeleton- Plugin List	DAM Implementation	– Theme Skeleton- Common Templates/Sections	Gutenberg Blocks	Migration Plugin base
2	– Post Types- Taxonomies- Global Tag Management- User roles and capabilities- Feature – Global Options		Full-width Navigation (Header Mega Menu)	Gutenberg Blocks	TaxonomiesUser Migration
3	– URL Mapping and Rewrite Rules- Sitemaps — Redirection- Robots.txt- SEO & Social Sharing		Header and Footer	Gutenberg Blocks	Media Migration
4	– Editorial workflow- UAT (Self-testing)- Enhancements and fixes		Gutenberg Blocks	Gutenberg Blocks	Content Migration Media Migration
5	– Redirection scripts	– UAT (Self-testing)- Enhancements and fixes	Gutenberg Blocks	Gutenberg Blocks	Content Migration
6			Block Page Templates	Third-party integration	Content Migration
7			QA: Gutenberg Blocks	QA: Third-party integration	Content MigrationDelta Migration Script

This will be followed by QA and other things… but you get the idea.