Update on UCT’s web migration project

Dear members of the Leadership Lekgotla

I have previously written to the members of the Leadership Lekgotla and the University of Cape Town (UCT) community on the Drupal 9 Development and Migration Project in February 2020, August 2020 and October 2020.

This project is being managed by the Communication and Marketing Department, and the Information and Communication Technology Services department. This communication serves as a progress report on the status of this important project.

The Drupal 9 Project, which is replacing UCT’s official web content management system (Drupal 7), is nearing completion of its development and implementation phase. Phase 2, the migration of approximately 340 websites from Drupal 7 into Drupal 9, started at the end of December 2021 with the UCT Main site.

Drupal 7 will come to its end of life in November of this year, 2022. It is therefore imperative that all Drupal 7 sites are moved into Drupal 9 as quickly as possible. This is important and urgent work.

Towards the end of 2021, the project team embarked on Drupal 7 site audits to determine and ensure their readiness for migration. It is crucial to the project’s success that website content managers respond timeously when approached by the project team. The project team will need the co-operation of the Drupal 7 website owners and content managers as well as the support of the Leadership Lekgotla to avoid delays during this phase.

I am appealing to you as members of the Leadership Lekgotla to please support the project team in implementing required website updates and fixes.

The success of this project will not only depend on the effectiveness of our project team or the vendor, but also on our collective prioritisation and tangible commitment to ensuring its success. Where capacity is a constraint, I ask that the project team be appraised of this so that we can advise you on how this is to be addressed with the faculty or department. Please do contact Rethea Deetlefs should you have any project or website migration enquiries.

I thank you in advance for your support and understanding, as we navigate and complete the last leg of this project.

Warm regards

Dr Reno Morar
Chief Operating Officer
Chairperson of the Project Implementation Committee

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements