Before you start
Catalogue first, decide second
Every migration mistake traces back to something nobody knew was there: an abandoned site, a form with no owner, a list too large to move cleanly. Discovery is where you find those things while they are still cheap to fix. Work through the whole environment once, write down what you find, and only then decide what moves.
| Part | What it captures |
|---|---|
| A · Site collection record | One record per site collection, its size, owners, customizations, and migration decision. Copy the page once per site. |
| B · Environment summary | Filled in once: the farm-wide facts that do not belong to any single site. |
| C · Exceptions & blockers log | A running list of the specific objects that need individual attention before they can move. |
How to use it
- 1Gather the datapage 3 shows where each field comes from
- 2Fill a record per sitework Part A site by site, then Part B once
- 3Log the blockersanything that cannot move as-is goes in Part C
Section one
Gather the data
Most of the worksheet is counts and dates. Here is where each one comes from, and which fields are genuinely hard to get without help.
| What you need | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| Site collections, URL, storage, subsites | PowerShell: Get-SPSite and Get-SPWeb with -Limit ALL. Or read it from Central Administration. |
| Content databases and sizes | Central Administration → Manage content databases, or Get-SPContentDatabase. |
| Lists or libraries over 5,000 items | A short PowerShell loop over each list’s item count. |
| Customizations, workflows, large-list and permission blockers | An SPMT scan. Its assessment report flags every one. (SMAT, the old tool, no longer works.) |
| Admin-deployed InfoPath templates | Central Administration → Manage form templates. |
| InfoPath forms on lists, true activity dates, permission sprawl | The hard ones. Deeper scripting, or a tool such as ShareGate. Expect to dig. |
Work in this order, and avoid these
- Central Admin first, then a PowerShell farm inventory, then an SPMT scan for the blockers, then targeted deep-dives.
- Use -Limit ALL on Get-SPSite and Get-SPWeb. Without it you only see the first 20 sites.
- Count subsites, not just site collections. A small-looking site can hide a dozen.
- Date your snapshot. A live farm changes daily; re-check the numbers close to cutover.
Part A
Site collection record
21 fields
Complete one record per site collection. Copy or reprint this page as many times as you have sites.
A1 · Identity
A2 · Ownership
A3 · Size & scale
A4 · Activity
A5 · Complexity flags
A6 · Disposition
Part B
Environment summary
Fill once
The farm-wide facts that do not belong to any single site. Fill this in once for the whole environment.
The whole environment
The four dispositions in Part A
- Migrate: the site moves as-is to SharePoint Online.
- Consolidate: its content folds into another site; record that target.
- Archive: kept read-only for reference or records; not actively migrated.
- Retire: nothing moves; delete it after any required hold period.
Sort the finished Part A records by decision and wave and you have a migration plan: a schedule, a consolidation map, and a deletion list.
Part C
Exceptions & blockers log
One line for every object that cannot simply move as-is. This is where migration risk actually lives, and the list a consultant will want first.
| Object / location | Issue | Detail | Action needed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Issue types to log: a list over 5,000 items · a surviving InfoPath form · a 2010 or 2013 workflow (both already retired in SharePoint Online) · a custom solution (.wsp) · a list with thousands of unique permissions · an unsupported web part or page. Each one is a decision or a rebuild, not a thing the migration tool will handle on its own.
If the inventory turns up trouble
A finished worksheet is the start of a migration plan.
Discovery is where a migration gets its first honest look at itself: the abandoned sites, the forms nobody owns, the permissions nobody can explain. If your filled worksheet has more in Part C than you expected, that is exactly the conversation TenantCraft's Migration Readiness Assessment is built for. Fixed fee $4,900, five days, and it turns this worksheet into a scoped plan. A discovery call is free, 25 minutes, and ends with a written scope, not a sales pitch.
- Web
- tenantcraft.ca
- hello@tenantcraft.ca
- Discovery call
- Free · 25 minutes
Worksheet last reviewed May 16, 2026. SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 reach end of support on July 14, 2026. A full inventory is the first step of any migration, and the one most often rushed.