In the digital world, procrastinating on technical decisions often seems harmless. “It still works”, “let's wait a little longer”, “it's not a priority”. Migrating is not urgent for everyone, but when it becomes inevitable... it can be more complex than necessary.
In this article, we share with you the most common mistakes in projects that postponed their migration to Drupal 11, and why it is better to anticipate.
1. Patch upon patch (until everything crashes)
When a site is stuck on old versions, it is common for the technical team to start applying “patches” to solve incompatibilities, keep modules working, or work around bugs. The problem is that these patches add up to technical debt. In the long run, they end up making migration more expensive, slower, and riskier.
In addition, many contributed modules keep up with the core. If the core is not updated, you are left without access to new releases, functionality improvements, or security patches. This leads to a paradox: the longer you wait to migrate, the fewer things you can upgrade... and the more vulnerable your site becomes.
2. Expose the site to vulnerabilities
The versions without official support stop receiving security updates. This means that, even if the site continues to function, it is more likely to be exposed to breaches. What's worse is that teams often don't know about it until something serious happens.
3. Migrate in a hurry
A well-done migration needs planning, testing, and time. But when it is postponed until there is no alternative, everything has to be done quickly. This generates pressure, risks, and improvised decisions.
4. Messy content and structures
Sites that remain in old versions tend to accumulate content types, fields, vocabularies, and taxonomies without control. This affects both performance and the editorial experience, and when the team finally decides to migrate, the real challenge arises: what to migrate and how to migrate it?
A well-planned migration is also an opportunity to organize, but if everything is tangled, that cleanup can be much more costly.
5. Frustrated teams, slow processes
When technology falls behind, processes suffer. Editors struggle with an unintuitive interface. Developers who avoid touching certain parts of the system.
All of this has a direct impact on team productivity and content quality.
Migration isn’t about following trends; it’s about leading with vision
Procrastination comes at a cost, and the more time passes, the harder it gets. If you're on Drupal 9 or even 7, the best time to start planning was a few months ago. The second-best time is now.
At Seed EM, we help you assess the current state of your site and plan an orderly migration, without unnecessary pain.
Migrate together? Let's talk.