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Anti-Patterns to Avoid

When to Use

Learn from common migration failures. These patterns consistently cause project delays, cost overruns, and technical debt.

Anti-Patterns

1. The "Big Bang" Migration - What: Attempt to migrate everything at once on launch day - Why it fails: No incremental testing, all failures discovered in production - Instead: Migrate in phases, test each component, final incremental sync

2. The "Copy-Paste Code Port" - What: Copy D7 .module files to D11, try to make them work - Why it fails: D7 hooks/APIs completely different, causes fatal errors - Instead: Rewrite using D11 patterns (plugins, services, event subscribers)

3. The "No Rollback Plan" - What: Migrate production without tested rollback procedure - Why it fails: Issues found post-launch can't be undone quickly - Instead: Test rollback on staging, keep D7 site running during migration window

4. The "Migrate Everything" Approach - What: Attempt to migrate all content including obsolete pages - Why it fails: Wastes time on unused content, increases migration complexity - Instead: Audit content, retire outdated material, migrate only active content

5. The "Settings.php Credentials" - What: Hardcode database passwords in settings.php committed to Git - Why it fails: Security vulnerability, credentials exposed in version control - Instead: Use environment variables, settings.local.php excluded from Git

6. The "No Dependency Order" - What: Migrate nodes before users/taxonomy/files they reference - Why it fails: Migration lookups fail, broken references, orphaned content - Instead: Always follow dependency chain: users → taxonomy → files → paragraphs → nodes

7. The "Full HTML Migration" - What: Migrate D7 content with Full HTML text format preserved - Why it fails: XSS vulnerabilities, deprecated/malicious code executed - Instead: Use restrictive formats (basic_html), sanitize during migration

8. The "Solo Developer Migration" - What: One person handles entire complex migration alone - Why it fails: Knowledge silos, no code review, burnout, delays - Instead: Team approach - frontend, backend, content editors collaborate

9. The "No Testing Until Production" - What: Skip staging migrations, test directly on live site - Why it fails: Data corruption, downtime, public-facing errors - Instead: Multiple staging migrations, UAT, performance testing before production

10. The "Retrofit Forever" - What: Use Retrofit as permanent solution, never modernize D7 code - Why it fails: Accumulates technical debt, harder to maintain over time - Instead: Retrofit as bridge, schedule modernization sprints post-launch

See Also