# Brentwood College School — Website Migration
## 10-Week Project Plan

Launch target: August 1, 2026. This plan runs 10 weeks, anchored to that date.

Note: August 1 is a Saturday — to confirm with Brentwood. Options: cut over on the low-traffic weekend
with the team on standby and full support from Monday August 3; or move the go-live to a weekday (ideally
not a Friday), such as the last week of July or Monday August 3.

What this is: migrating Brentwood's website to WordPress while preserving the current look and feel —
solving platform risk, the ad-to-application tracking gap, and editor friction.

Status: draft for review.

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## The team

A small, focused team delivers this build:

| Role | People | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Project Owner | Rian | Business direction, client communication, stakeholder reviews, training |
| Lead Developer | Adi | Architecture, custom development, team coordination, and final quality check |
| Assistant Lead | Zeina | Template/design build & page building |
| Junior Developers | Indra, Rahman, Yohana | Page building & content migration |

Effort is tracked against budget every week and reported to Brentwood.

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## The 10 weeks at a glance

| Week | Dates | Focus | What Brentwood sees | What we need from Brentwood |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jun 1–7 | Kickoff, custom blocks & page prep | Project kickoff & FinalSite discovery call; core custom page blocks built; page prep in parallel | Join kickoff & FinalSite call; provide brand assets |
| 2 | Jun 8–14 | Blocks, template & page build starts | Remaining custom blocks completed; site template preview; page building begins; shared to-do list of all pages issued for tracking | Sign off only on any adjustments we propose (design otherwise matches the current site) |
| 3 | Jun 15–21 | Content migration underway | Progress visible on staging — some pages viewable (not final); progress tracked on the shared list | Monitor progress; answer content questions |
| 4 | Jun 22–28 | Content migration | First complete draft — pages, blogs, staff bios, courses, photo library; polishing & mobile refinement follows | Monitor progress; answer content questions |
| 5 | Jun 29–Jul 5 | Custom features + first review | Custom features demoed — calendar, livestream, video hero and more; core pages ready to review | Review core pages & give feedback |
| 6 | Jul 6–12 | Tracking, SEO & performance | Analytics/tracking live; inquiry forms & SEO essentials; performance (caching/CDN), image optimization & backups in place | Confirm tracking & Looker Studio access |
| 7 | Jul 13–19 | Feature complete + full QA | Feature-complete staging site; full QA across browsers and devices | Full stakeholder review & consolidated feedback |
| 8 | Jul 20–26 | Editor setup, training & sign-off (buffer) | Review fixes; simplified editor roles & content-approval workflow; recorded editor training; admin documentation | Attend training; final sign-off |
| 9 | Jul 27–Aug 2 | Launch | Go live on August 1 (Saturday — exact day to confirm) | IT supports DNS/hosting cutover; go/no-go sign-off |
| 10 | Aug 3–9 | Stabilization | Stable live site; 30-day support window begins | Report any issues found |

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## Milestones in detail

Week 1 — Kickoff, custom blocks & page prep. Align on scope, hold the FinalSite discovery call (arranged
ahead of kickoff, since it gates the tracking work), and collect brand assets from Brentwood — while
building the core set of custom page blocks (the reusable building blocks used to rebuild pages). In
parallel, page pre-work gets under way — reviewing the current site and preparing page structures so
building can move quickly once blocks are ready.

Week 2 — Blocks, template & page build starts. Finish the remaining custom blocks and stand up the site's
visual framework — header, footer, colour palette, typography and spacing — carried over from the current
site and ready to preview. With the core blocks in place, page building starts in parallel. We also hand
Brentwood the shared to-do list of all pages, so progress can be tracked from this point on.

Week 3 — Content migration underway. Content migration is in progress. Brentwood can monitor progress on
staging — some pages will be viewable for early feedback, but nothing is final at this stage. Progress is
tracked on the shared page list (what's done versus what's still in progress).

Week 4 — Content migration. A first complete draft of the content — all pages, student blogs, staff bios,
courses and the photo library, all in staging. From here the work moves into polishing and refinement: a
detailed pass over the higher-traffic pages, plus mobile/responsive polishing, in Weeks 5–6 to bring
everything to final quality. (Exact volumes are confirmed once we run the content count in Week 1.)

Week 5 — Custom features + first review. The custom features take shape — the calendar, livestream module,
video hero and other build items — and the core admissions/brochure pages are ready for Brentwood's first
review: a chance to give feedback on the visual match while there's still plenty of runway.

Week 6 — Tracking, SEO & performance. Analytics and campaign tracking go live on staging, inquiry forms
are wired up, and the SEO essentials (structure, schema, redirects, sitemap) are in place. Performance work
lands too — page caching and a CDN for fast loads, automatic image optimization, and daily database /
weekly full-site backups (verified restorable).

Week 7 — Feature complete + full QA. Everything is built and on staging. We run a full QA pass — across
browsers and devices (desktop, tablet and mobile), plus links, forms and redirects — alongside the full
stakeholder review round.

Week 8 — Editor setup, training & sign-off. We put the simpler editor experience in place — collapsing the
old 100-plus permissions into a handful of clear roles, with a content-approval (pending-review) workflow,
for example for teacher bios. We fold in feedback from the Week-7 review, run final pre-launch QA, deliver
the recorded 2-hour editor training on the new setup, and finish admin documentation — leading to
Brentwood's final sign-off. This week is also the schedule's main buffer: if the Week-7 review surfaces
larger changes, this is where they're absorbed.

Week 9 — Launch (August 1). Final checks and a go/no-go sign-off, then the site goes live — Brentwood IT
handles the DNS/hosting cutover on DigitalOcean. Note: August 1 falls on a Saturday; we'll confirm with
Brentwood whether to cut over on the low-traffic weekend (team on standby, full support from Monday August
3) or move the go-live to a weekday.

Week 10 — Stabilization. Monitoring and quick fixes on the live site as the 30-day post-launch support
window begins (running through early September).

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## How Brentwood follows progress

- A staging site from Week 3 — monitor progress in real time as content is migrated (early pages may be
  viewable before they're final).
- A weekly status update plus a shared to-do list — milestone status (on track / watch / at risk), how
  much content is migrated, and what's still in progress.
- Review and sign-off points at Weeks 5, 7 and 8 — so there are no surprises at launch.

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## A note on changes during the build

To make sure the new site matches what everyone expects at launch, a few practical asks:

- Keep running the current site as normal — but please let us know, through Rian, about any content or
  page changes you make during the migration. We re-sync from the current site, so anything you tell us
  about gets carried over; changes we don't know about can be missed or overwritten.
- Please don't edit the new (staging) site directly. It's rebuilt repeatedly as content is migrated, so
  direct edits there would be lost. Send any change or request to Rian and the team applies it.
- A light content freeze near launch — in the final week or two before August 1, we'll ask to hold
  non-urgent changes on the current site so what goes live matches what was reviewed and signed off.

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## What could affect the schedule

1. FinalSite discovery call — its timing and answers shape the campaign-tracking work. If it slips, the
   core site still proceeds; advanced tracking moves later.
2. Brand assets and content sign-off — the main thing we need from Brentwood on time.
3. Livestream workflow — one detail still to confirm with Brentwood IT; could add a small item.
4. Hosting/staging setup and launch cutover — staging needs to be ready early (Weeks 2–3) to keep reviews
   on schedule, and Brentwood IT performs the DNS/hosting cutover at launch.
5. Tight run to launch — feature-complete and the full review both fall in Week 7, leaving Week 8 as the
   only window to absorb feedback before August 1. Week 8 is our buffer; substantial changes from the
   Week-7 review could push the launch date.

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*Internal build detail (assignments, engineering breakdown, task tracking) is maintained separately by the
team and is available on request.*