GovCMS - a Drupal based whole of government content management system and web host - plays a critical role in supporting more than 375 Australian Government websites.
To ensure the platform remains stable, secure and futureproofed, the Department of Finance, who manages GovCMS on behalf of multiple Federal Government departments, upgraded the distribution to Drupal 11 (D11).
This major upgrade saw several legacy modules retired and the introduction of enhanced capabilities including improved search and filtering, tightened session security, and expanded data export functionality.
Given the scale, complexity and risks associated with this transition, the Department of Finance engaged Jude to support D11 readiness for more than 20 GovCMS sites.
For each site assigned to us, we conducted a thorough audit of all installed modules and themes to identify deprecated, unsupported, or incompatible code ahead of the Drupal 11 transition. Where modules were flagged for removal from the GovCMS distribution, such as GovCMS8 UIkit, our team assessed the impact on site functionality and implemented compatible replacements using supported Drupal 11 approaches, including Layout Builder, Twig templating, and core configuration patterns
But this wasn’t as simple as just removing outdated modules.
For content types built on deprecated modules such as Panelizer, we carried out structured migration work to ensure existing content remained intact, editable, and correctly rendered after the transition.
Where module replacement required changes to themes, templates, or layout components, we updated and reconfigured these to ensure affected sites were maintainable and aligned with GovCMS distribution standards.
For themes that were identified as technical debt, the work depended on the deprecated theme. For instance:
Throughout these activities, we worked closely with agency teams to minimise disruption and ensure any changes to the content editing experience were clearly communicated and supported with documentation.
To ensure the transition to Drupal 11 was seamless and smooth as possible for website owners, content authors and the Department of Finance, we ran upgrade tests as a form of quality assurance, including visual regression testing to catch unintended layout or styling changes between the preview branch and live site.
These upgrade tests were done in accordance to Drupal documentation and included:
To ensure each upgrade went as smoothly as possible and was not a disruptive experience, we also helped the Department identify additional work that would need to occur alongside the upgrade. This primarily involved supporting content authors to edit existing content with compatible Drupal 11 modules and, in select cases, the provision of training material.