There are a lot of reasons to upgrade from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010. There are also a lot of reasons to upgrade to the new 2010 look and feel. But it’s not a requirement, and, in fact, can potentially add a lot of work to your migration effort.

In order to justify this extra work to a client, I’ve compiled a list of advantages the new 2010 UI gives one over sticking with the old SP2007 look and feel. Most items come from posts listed in my SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Resources post.

Here’s the list:

• explicit use of strict DOCTYPE provides better standards compliance, more consistent look and feel across SharePoint pages, and better consistency and support from a cross-browser perspective
• access to the new ribbon UI
• better general ease of use through the ribbon, menus, dialogs
• aligns better with current Office look and feel
• better use of modern CSS/HTML tags (uses div tag for layout vs. tables, for ex.) resulting in faster rendering and more maintainable pages/sites
• if not using the new 2010 interface, users will not have access to the ribbon, in-place editing of Wiki pages, interactive calendars, cannot define list relationships
• new sites created after the 2007->2010 upgrade automatically default to the new 2010 interface (requiring manual change to the old look and feel each time)
• fully XHTML compliant WCAG 2.0 AA level accessibility (for the impaired)
• AJAX/Web 2.0 enhancements greatly reduce page refreshes
• in-place page editing

I don’t doubt there are many more reasons, so consider this list preliminary or something to build on.

I’m currently involved in a project whose purpose is to upgrade an existing SharePoint 2007 server farm to SharePoint 2010. In order to help facilitate my part of the project, I’m going to use this post to document the relevant resources. While I’m interested in the process from start to finish, I’m only tasked with performing the Visual Upgrade and porting some Silverlight applications and relevant other pieces to the new environment. That isn’t going to stop me from learning about the other steps, though. I’ll update as I find new things.

Here’s the links.

General

• Upgrading to SharePoint Server 2010 (TechNet)
• Upgrading to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (DOC, PDF, EPUB, MOBI)
• Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products Upgrade Approaches (PDF)
• Upgrading a Site Collection from SharePoint Server 2007 WCM to SharePoint Server 2010 WCM
• SharePoint Server 2007 vs. 2010 Feature Comparison Matrix
• Product Information Feature Gallery
• SharePoint 2010 Resource Guide

Visual Upgrade

• Manage visual upgrade (TechNet)
• Understanding Visual Upgrade in SharePoint 2010
• Migrating Users to SharePoint 2010 Using Visual Upgrade
• Enable Visual Upgrade on Sites with PowerShell
• Plan visual upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010)
• Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 look and feel (via PowerShell)

Master Pages

• Working with SharePoint 2010 Master Pages
• Quick Overview of Master Pages in SharePoint 2010
• Deploying a custom master page in SharePoint 2010
• Upgrading an Existing Master Page to the SharePoint Foundation Master Page
• Deploying a SharePoint Master Page as a Feature

Themes

• Working with SharePoint 2010 Themes

CSS 

•  SharePoint 2010 Base CSS Classes

Browser Compatibility

(Believe it or not, but DOCTYPE/IE8 compatibility comes into play b/c the client has a HUGE installed base of IE6 that is just now being upgraded to IE8 (no, not 9). Compatibility with IE8 is one of the requirements of the project.)

• Compatibility and IE8
• Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8
• Defining Document Compatibility
• Activating Browser Modes with Doctype
• How to Enable Standards Support
• !DOCTYPE (reference)