Introducing the SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit: Open-Source PowerShell for SharePoint Migration Discovery

TL;DR

The SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit is an open-source PowerShell project for SharePoint on-premises migration discovery.

It helps collect inventory and risk information such as site collections, subsites, lists, libraries, permissions, stale sites, large lists, workflows, custom solutions, and migration readiness indicators.

The goal is not to migrate content. The goal is to help teams understand what they have before deciding how to migrate it.

Why I created this project
What the toolkit is designed to do
What the toolkit does not do
Key reports included in the project
Why migration scoping matters
Example use cases
Supported SharePoint versions
How the toolkit fits into a migration project
Roadmap and future improvements
Final thoughts
FAQ

SharePoint migrations do not usually fail because the migration button was clicked incorrectly.

They usually fail because the environment was not understood well enough before the migration started.

Before moving content from SharePoint Server to SharePoint Online, teams need answers to practical questions:

How many site collections are in scope?
Which sites are still active?
Which sites have no clear owner?
Are there large lists or libraries that need special attention?
Are there unique permissions that need to be reviewed?
Are there workflows or customizations that may not move cleanly to Microsoft 365?
What should be migrated, archived, cleaned up, or redesigned?

That is the problem I wanted to address with this new open-source project.

I recently published the SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit, a PowerShell-based discovery and reporting toolkit designed to help SharePoint administrators, migration consultants, and technical analysts assess on-premises SharePoint environments before migration to SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365.

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/BillySharePoint/sharepoint-migration-scoping-toolkit

1. Why I Created This Project

In many SharePoint migration projects, the pressure is usually focused on the migration timeline.

When can we move the content? How fast can we migrate? Which tool should we use? When is the cutover?

Those are important questions, but they are not the first questions I would ask.

Before choosing the migration approach, I believe teams need to understand the current environment first. This is especially true for older SharePoint Server farms where sites may have been created over many years, by different departments, under different governance rules.

A SharePoint farm can contain:

old project sites no one owns anymore,
large document libraries,
custom lists with thousands or millions of items,
broken permission inheritance,
SharePoint Designer workflows,
custom farm solutions,
inactive sites,
and content that may no longer need to move.

Without proper discovery, all of that becomes a migration risk.

That is why I created this toolkit: to support a better discovery and scoping process before migration execution begins.

2. What the Toolkit Is Designed to Do

The SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit is designed to collect useful discovery information from SharePoint on-premises environments.

The project currently focuses on helping teams identify:

SharePoint farm details,
web applications,
content databases,
site collections,
subsites,
lists and libraries,
large lists,
stale or inactive sites,
unique permissions,
workflows,
custom farm solutions,
activated features,
and migration risk indicators.

The output is intended to help with migration planning, stakeholder conversations, technical analysis, and project scoping.

Instead of starting with assumptions, the toolkit helps teams start with real inventory data.

3. What the Toolkit Does Not Do

This project is intentionally focused on discovery and scoping.

It does not migrate SharePoint content.

It does not replace migration tools such as ShareGate, Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool, Quest, AvePoint, or other enterprise migration platforms.

It does not guarantee that content is ready for SharePoint Online.

It does not modify SharePoint content, permissions, configuration, or site structure.

The toolkit is meant to be a pre-migration assessment helper. It gives migration teams better visibility before they begin planning migration waves, cleanup, remediation, testing, and user acceptance.

4. Key Reports Included in the Project

The toolkit is structured around practical reports that are often needed during SharePoint migration discovery.

Farm Inventory

Collects high-level SharePoint farm information such as farm build version, servers, roles, and services.

This can help migration teams understand the platform they are working with before planning an upgrade or cloud migration.

Web Application Inventory

Reports web applications, application pools, authentication configuration, and related database counts.

This is useful when identifying logical boundaries and understanding how the existing SharePoint environment is organized.

Content Database Inventory

Collects information about content databases, including size, site count, and database status.

This can support migration batching and help identify large content areas that may need extra planning.

Site Collection Inventory

Reports site collections, owners, storage usage, templates, and last modified information.

This is one of the most important reports for scoping because site collections often become the main unit for planning migration waves.

Web and Subsite Inventory

Reports subsites, templates, permission inheritance, and list/library counts.

This helps identify complex site structures that may need redesign or cleanup before moving to SharePoint Online.

List and Library Inventory

Collects list and library details such as item counts, configuration, versioning, and potential migration concerns.

This is especially helpful when identifying libraries that may need special handling or validation.

Large Lists Report

Identifies lists and libraries exceeding a defined item count threshold.

Large lists are not always a migration blocker, but they should be reviewed early because they can affect planning, performance, testing, and user experience.

Permissions Summary

Summarizes objects with unique permissions or broken inheritance.

Permissions are one of the areas where migration teams need to be careful. Complex permissions can create confusion, validation issues, and security concerns after migration.

Stale Sites Report

Identifies sites that have not been modified within a defined threshold.

This report helps teams decide which sites should be migrated, archived, cleaned up, or reviewed with business owners.

Workflow Inventory

Identifies workflow associations on webs and lists.

This is important because legacy workflows often require review and may need to be rebuilt using Power Automate or another modern process automation approach.

Custom Solutions Inventory

Reports farm solutions and deployment status.

Custom solutions should be reviewed carefully because many older SharePoint customizations do not translate directly to SharePoint Online.

Migration Risk Assessment

Provides a consolidated risk analysis with recommendations.

The goal is to turn raw inventory into a more useful migration planning view.

Migration Summary Report

Generates high-level metrics and a stakeholder-friendly summary.

This can help technical teams communicate findings to project sponsors, business owners, and migration decision-makers.

5. Why Migration Scoping Matters

A SharePoint migration is not just a copy operation.

It is a chance to understand the environment, clean up old content, confirm ownership, reduce risk, and prepare users for a better Microsoft 365 experience.

Good migration scoping can help answer questions like:

Which sites should move first?
Which sites should be archived?
Which sites need business owner confirmation?
Which areas require cleanup?
Which libraries need special migration testing?
Which permissions should be simplified?
Which workflows require replacement planning?
Which customizations may block or delay migration?

When this information is collected early, migration planning becomes more realistic.

It also helps avoid one of the most common migration mistakes: moving everything without understanding what everything actually is.

6. Example Use Cases

Here are a few ways this toolkit can be used in a real SharePoint migration project.

Pre-Migration Discovery

Run the toolkit before the migration project begins to understand the size, structure, and complexity of the SharePoint environment.

Migration Wave Planning

Use the site collection, web, list, and risk reports to group sites into logical migration waves.

Lower-risk sites can move earlier. Higher-risk sites can be reviewed, cleaned up, or tested separately.

Business Owner Validation

Use site collection and stale site reports to confirm business ownership.

This is especially useful when an environment has old department sites, project sites, or collaboration areas that may no longer have active owners.

Cleanup and Archive Decisions

Use stale site and large content reports to identify areas that may not need to migrate.

Not every site needs to move to SharePoint Online. Some content may be better archived, deleted, or restructured.

Permissions Review

Use the permissions summary report to identify areas with unique permissions.

This helps teams plan validation and reduce permission-related surprises after migration.

Workflow and Customization Review

Use workflow and custom solution reports to identify areas that may require redesign before moving to Microsoft 365.

This is important for organizations that have been using SharePoint Server for many years.

7. Supported SharePoint Versions

The project is intended for SharePoint on-premises environments, including:

SharePoint Server 2013
SharePoint Server 2016
SharePoint Server 2019
SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

The scripts are designed to run from a SharePoint server where the SharePoint Management Shell and SharePoint PowerShell snap-in are available.

8. How the Toolkit Fits Into a Migration Project

I see this toolkit fitting into the early discovery and assessment stage of a migration project.

A practical process could look like this:

Run the full SharePoint migration scoping assessment.
Review site collection inventory.
Confirm business owners.
Review stale or inactive sites.
Identify large lists and libraries.
Review permission complexity.
Identify workflows and custom solutions.
Create migration risk categories.
Define cleanup, archive, and migration candidates.
Build migration waves based on risk and business priority.
Share summary reports with stakeholders.
Begin migration testing with a clearer scope.

This approach helps make migration planning more structured and less reactive.

9. Roadmap and Future Improvements

The project roadmap includes improvements such as:

main runner script with config file support,
expanded risk assessment,
summary reporting,
farm and web application inventory enhancements,
workflow and custom solution inventory,
optional HTML dashboard output,
optional Excel workbook export,
improved documentation,
and more sample output files.

The long-term goal is to make the toolkit practical enough for real discovery conversations while keeping it simple enough for SharePoint admins and technical analysts to understand and customize.

10. Final Thoughts

The SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit is a project I created because I believe good migration planning starts with good discovery.

Before moving content to SharePoint Online, teams need to know what they have, what risks exist, what should be cleaned up, and what needs further review.

This toolkit is not meant to replace enterprise migration platforms. Instead, it is meant to help teams prepare better before using those platforms.

If you work with SharePoint Server, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365, migration planning, or governance, I hope this project gives you a helpful starting point for building better migration scope documentation.

You can view the project on GitHub here: https://github.com/BillySharePoint/sharepoint-migration-scoping-toolkit

FAQ

What is the SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit?

The SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit is an open-source PowerShell project for discovering, inventorying, and assessing SharePoint on-premises environments before migration to SharePoint Online or Microsoft 365.

Does this toolkit migrate SharePoint content?

No. The toolkit does not migrate content. It is focused on discovery, inventory, reporting, risk identification, and migration scoping.

Who is this toolkit for?

It is designed for SharePoint administrators, migration consultants, technical analysts, Microsoft 365 consultants, and teams preparing for a SharePoint migration.

What kind of reports does it generate?

The toolkit is designed to generate reports for site collections, subsites, lists, libraries, large lists, stale sites, permissions, workflows, custom solutions, content databases, and migration risk assessment.

Can this replace ShareGate, SPMT, Quest, or AvePoint?

No. This toolkit does not replace migration platforms. It is intended to support the discovery and planning stage before using a migration tool.

Does it support SharePoint Online?

The current focus is SharePoint on-premises discovery before migration to SharePoint Online. It is not designed as a SharePoint Online reporting tool in its initial version.

Is the toolkit read-only?

The project is designed for read-only discovery. It should not modify SharePoint content, permissions, configuration, or site structure.

What permissions are required?

For full farm inventory, the account running the scripts should have appropriate SharePoint farm administrator access and permission to run SharePoint Management Shell commands.

Why is migration scoping important?

Migration scoping helps teams identify what should migrate, what should be archived, what requires cleanup, and what risks need to be addressed before migration execution.

Planning a SharePoint migration is easier when you understand your current environment first.

If you are preparing to move from SharePoint Server to SharePoint Online, take time to inventory your sites, review ownership, identify stale content, check permissions, and understand customization risks before migration begins.

You can check out the open-source project here:

GitHub: https://github.com/BillySharePoint/sharepoint-migration-scoping-toolkit

If you are working through a SharePoint migration or Microsoft 365 modernization project, this toolkit can be a starting point for better discovery, better planning, and better stakeholder conversations.