Migrating from legacy goals to Totara goals

If you have previously used legacy goals in Totara, you may want to migrate existing goals to the Totara goals system.

Data is not transferred between the two goal systems, so you should be cautious when switching between these tools. Examples will help to illustrate potential issues.

Example 1

A site has legacy goals enabled and legacy goals records. The Site Administrator then changes the setting to enable Totara goals. The following changes occur: 

• A different Goals landing page is displayed with Your goals tab only. 
• The Performance overview page and Goals page will not show any legacy goals.
• If an existing goal has already selected to review in a performance activity, they will still be visible to users. If you have not selected any goal to review for a performance activity, users cannot add existing legacy goals to the activity.

Example 2

A site has Totara goals enabled. The Site Administrator then decides to revert to the legacy goals tool and disable Totara goals. The following changes occur: 

• The Site Administrator cannot add the Create goals element to performance activities.
• Any Totara goals that have been created will no longer be available on the Performance overview page, Goals page, or Goals details page.
• Any Totara goals will still be available in report sources and the goals that had already been added to activities will remain.

Totara goals transition mode

If you have a large number of in-progress legacy goals (personal goals and company goals) on your site, you may not want to switch over to Totara goals immediately. In this instance, we recommend setting Enable goals to Totara goals transition mode. This option allows you to start using Totara goals, while still providing limited access to legacy goals.

Here is a summary of what users can do when you select Totara goals transition mode:

• Users will have full access to the Totara goals functionality.
• Site Administrators can create, edit, update and delete legacy company goals (as they would if Legacy goals were selected).
• Users will have limited access to legacy personal goals:
  • Users and managers can still view any personal goals that have been selected for review in a performance activity.
  • Site Administrators can configure performance activities to include reviewing legacy personal goals, and users can select legacy personal goals for review in their performance activities.
  • Users can update the status of legacy personal goals.
  • Users can delete their legacy personal goals.
  • Users cannot create or edit legacy personal goals.
• Managers can view the legacy goals page via the Team page.
• Performance activities can include both Totara goals and legacy goals for review.
• You can create reports for both Totara goals and legacy goals. We recommend renaming reports and columns for legacy goals to avoid confusion.
• Only Totara goals will be displayed on the Performance overview page.

Upgrading to Totara 19

When upgrading to Totara 19, the default setting for which goals will be used depends on whether you had goals enabled previously, and whether you have existing goal records on your system. 

• If you had goals enabled and have legacy goal records, the setting will be set to Legacy goals
• If you did not have goals enabled but have existing goal records, the setting will be set to None
• If you do not have any goal records the setting will be set to Totara goals
• For new installations the default setting is Totara goals

We recommend following this process when upgrading and switching to Totara goals:

1. You may want to prompt your teams and users to complete their old goals before the switch to Totara goals.
2. Identify and make a note of all performance activities that use legacy goals as a review element. 
3. Once you've enabled Totara goals, clone these performance activities and replace the legacy goal review element with the Totara goal review element.
4. Check the instance creation settings and the assigned audiences, then activate the performance activities.
5. Create any additional performance activities or clone and modify existing performance activities to include Create goals elements.
6. Check that your site's navigation (e.g. the main menu or quick-access menu) allows users to navigate to the new Goals page, and the Performance overview page (if required).
7. Create any reports you require for Totara goals.