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SharePoint Migration Discovery and Readiness Assessment

Know what you are migrating before you write the SOW.

I review your file shares or SharePoint Server environment, how access works on it, and the plan around it. You get a scope, a risk register, a recommended target design, and the inputs an RFP or statement of work needs, so you can compare vendors and approve a budget on facts rather than guesses.

Ask about an assessment See what you receive

16+ years of SharePoint experience Microsoft Certified Government and enterprise experience, including a SharePoint migration of more than 100 TB Remote, from Vancouver, BC

When this assessment makes sense

  • You are writing an RFP or a statement of work and need a scope you can defend.
  • Vendor estimates differ widely and you cannot tell which assumptions are right.
  • Years of content sit on network drives or SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019, and nobody has a reliable inventory.
  • The permissions on the source are messy, and you do not want to copy them into Microsoft 365.
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot is part of the future state, so access needs to be right from the first wave.
  • Leadership wants to know how big the migration really is before approving a budget.

What I review

Environment inventory
File shares, SharePoint Server farms, SharePoint Online, Teams-connected sites, OneDrive use, and other repositories that are in or out of scope.
Content
Volume, file counts, age, inactive content, likely duplicates, unusual file types, deep folder paths, and names that will cause trouble in SharePoint Online.
Access and permissions
Active Directory groups, file share permissions, SharePoint groups, direct and broken-inheritance permissions, broad access, guests, external sharing, and ownership.
Information architecture
What belongs in OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint; site and library boundaries; hub relationships; metadata; navigation; and security boundaries.
Migration approach
Migration Manager, the SharePoint Migration Tool, or a third-party tool where the requirements justify it; pilot, waves, cutover, delta runs, and validation.
Governance readiness
Site ownership, lifecycle, external sharing rules, retention, permission reviews, provisioning, and the support model that must exist before content moves.

What you receive

  • Environment summary with the numbers that drive scope
  • Migration risk register
  • Content disposition recommendations: move, archive, or delete
  • Permission remediation approach
  • Recommended target architecture across OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint
  • Pilot and migration wave recommendation
  • Tooling recommendation
  • RFP and SOW inputs: scope assumptions, exclusions, and questions to ask implementation vendors

Common risks I look for

  • File share permissions copied as they are, including direct user access and broad groups
  • Content with no owner, so nobody can decide whether it moves
  • Very large libraries and deep folder trees that need a different structure in SharePoint Online
  • Paths and file names that run into SharePoint Online limits
  • Legacy workflows, InfoPath forms, macros, scripts, and mapped-drive links the business still relies on
  • External sharing needs the target design has not planned for
  • Scope assumptions in a proposal that the inventory does not support

Still on SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019?

Both versions reached the end of extended support on July 14, 2026 (Microsoft lifecycle page (opens in a new tab)), so Microsoft no longer releases security updates for them. For a farm, the assessment also covers custom and farm solutions, workflows, InfoPath forms, authentication, integrations, and records requirements, and whether SharePoint Online, SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, or a hybrid path fits.

Farm discovery uses my open-source SharePoint Migration Scoping Toolkit (opens in a new tab), a PowerShell inventory for SharePoint Server 2013 through Subscription Edition that reports without changing content. Read how the toolkit works and what end of support means for your options.

How the assessment works

  1. 1

    Agree the scope

    A short call about the environment, the deadline, and what access or exports are needed.

  2. 2

    Discovery

    Read-only inventory of content, permissions, and configuration. Where you prefer not to grant access, your team can run the read-only scripts and reports and share the output.

  3. 3

    Working sessions

    Remote sessions with IT and the business owners who know the content, to test assumptions and decide what moves.

  4. 4

    Findings

    The risk register, target architecture, and disposition recommendations, written for both IT and leadership.

  5. 5

    Readout

    A walkthrough of the report and the RFP or SOW inputs, with time for your questions.

What happens after the assessment

The findings are yours. Use them to brief vendors and compare proposals, to run the migration with your own team, or to plan the next step with me. The assessment does not assume that I do the implementation.

If a plan or a vendor proposal already exists, the independent architecture review checks it without repeating the discovery. If permissions are the main worry, start with the permissions and oversharing assessment.

Frequently asked questions

What should a SharePoint migration assessment include?

A SharePoint migration assessment should include an inventory of what you have (volume, age, owners, file types, and paths), how access works today, what should move, be archived, or be deleted, where content belongs in OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint, the migration approach and tooling, the governance that must exist first, and a risk register. If you are going to market, it should also produce the scope assumptions for an RFP or statement of work.

Can you help us scope a migration before we issue an RFP or statement of work?

Yes. That is the main reason to do the assessment first: the inventory gives you scope assumptions, exclusions, and the questions to ask vendors, so their proposals can be compared on the same facts. If you already have a draft SOW or a vendor proposal, the independent architecture review checks it instead.

Should we copy our file share permissions into SharePoint?

Usually not as they are. File share permissions build up over years, with direct user access and groups nobody remembers. The assessment shows which permissions reflect real business needs, and recommends a simpler group-based model for the target.

Should we use Migration Manager, SPMT, or a third-party tool?

Migration Manager and the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) are both free Microsoft tools. Migration Manager runs file share migrations at scale from the SharePoint admin center; SPMT also migrates SharePoint Server 2010 to 2019 sites. A third-party tool can be worth paying for when your sources or requirements fall outside what they support. The assessment recommends one based on your sources and requirements, and a pilot confirms it before the main migration.

What should move to OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint?

Personal working files go to OneDrive, content owned by a team that collaborates on it day to day goes to the SharePoint site behind that team, and content that a department or the organization publishes or keeps long term goes to SharePoint sites with their own owners. The assessment maps your current folders to those destinations.

Do we need an assessment if a vendor has already written a plan?

Not always. If a plan exists, an independent architecture review checks its assumptions, risks, and gaps without repeating the discovery. The assessment is the better fit when nobody has inventoried the environment.

Do we have to use you for the migration afterwards?

No. You own the findings and can use them to brief vendors, run the migration with your own team, or ask me to help with planning or execution.

How is the assessment delivered?

Remotely. I am based in Vancouver, BC, and work with organizations across British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada.

Related

Need a migration scope you can defend?

Send a short note about your sources, their rough size, and your deadline. If a plan or SOW already exists, I will point you to the architecture review instead.

Send a note