Ensure the success of your LMS implementation project
Whether it’s for employee learning and development, HR onboarding, compliance training, or academic education, if you or your team are considering implementing your organization’s first (or next) LMS. I would like to share my own proven LMS. A recipe for a successful LMS implementation project.
First, let’s briefly explain what an LMS is. According to the EdTech book Learning Management Systems: Choosing the Right Path for Your Organization, a learning management system (or LMS for short) is a platform that helps deliver online content for learning purposes. If you need a technical definition, a learning management system (LMS) is web-based software used to facilitate the delivery of online, face-to-face, and blended courses, both in academic settings and in the business world.
From my professional experience, I have had the opportunity to conduct two LMS implementation projects, one for a commercial company and one for a non-profit organization, both of which were successful after implementation. The success measures used were user adoption (monthly increase in active users), course completion rates, and people’s ratings of the new platform. Here are the steps I used to ensure my LMS implementation project was on the right track from the beginning.
Step-by-step guide to a successful LMS implementation project
Step 1: Identify business objectives and prepare technical specifications
When an organization decides to implement an LMS, it needs to identify its primary business objective and some goals that support it. Key business drivers typically include compliance training, employee onboarding, employee learning and development, leadership development, sales training, and partner channel training, to name a few. . This list can vary, but clearly defining the drivers is essential to establishing a solid business case that secures buy-in and support from senior management. Additionally, the same business case will help demonstrate that the implementation achieved its objectives once the LMS has been deployed.
Often, the training team responsible for implementing an LMS may lack technical background. However, this should not be a barrier as detailed technical specifications are important in the vendor selection process. According to Standish Group’s annual CHAOS 2020 report, 66% of technology projects (based on an analysis of 50,000 projects worldwide) end in partial or complete failure.
In my experience with LMS implementations, detailed and well-defined technical specifications give end users a clear understanding of their goals. In the same technical document, we included all required features and additional useful (bonus) features to help the team evaluate vendors and ensure that the chosen solution meets these requirements ( (see step 2). The technical specifications were an important reference throughout the process, from initial vendor selection to post-implementation.
Step 2: Vendor sourcing, sandbox testing, comparison, and selection
Generally, you should shortlist three vendors that cover the key functionality you want to achieve (see technical specifications in step 1). It is important to request a demo or test system from the vendor before signing a contract.
From vendor demos, each vendor showcased their most powerful features and other additions, including gamification, AI-suggested content, mobile apps, and on-the-go learning. Before you get excited about a great add-on, ask yourself and your team: Do these features align with your organization’s mandatory requirements? A well-prepared technical specification will keep your team focused and ensure your organization’s mandatory requirements are checked first before diving into bonus features. Help you choose an LMS.
Points/weight percentage models can be assigned to both required and bonus features. Then apply your points for each vendor and see who the best overall winner is. But don’t get happy too soon. Remember to double-check your budget and make sure you understand your LMS pricing model.
Active user pricing models are common in the LMS industry, but be careful with the vendor’s definition of active users. For example, active users for a given period of time (each calendar month) are called monthly active users (MAU). The count will be reset at the beginning of the next month. The thing to keep in mind with this pricing model is whether you have a lot of repeat monthly users. Are your LMS users new or regular? Many LMSs do not embrace the concept of repeat users. Simply put, this means that if the same user interacts with the system in multiple months, that user will be counted as active in all months.
Step 3: Set up implementation team, work plan, and schedule
Once you have identified a winning LMS supplier, the next steps are similar to the implementation and project management of any other IT project. Set up your implementation team with a detailed work plan and start schedule.
Training teams are often relatively small, but don’t be afraid to start a full team with everyone working full time. The project team includes a project manager, a graphic designer for the platform UI/UX, an instructional designer responsible for preparing the content and e-learning packages (SCORM, xAPI packages), and an IT representative for system/database related support (custom domain, single domain). Includes specialists. sign-on, cookie policy). An experienced project manager coordinates all team members and provides updates on progress and when expertise is needed.
As the captain of the ship, the project manager must be on-site on a regular basis (weekly or bi-weekly) to closely monitor progress. The implementation challenge is to build a scalable, adaptive, and functional shell container. Key tasks include logo and branding graphics and colors, setting up hierarchical branches and subsequent groups/business units for end users, and additional useful information for categorizing users and groups (for future registration and automation rules). ), pages, and menus, course libraries and catalogs, certificates, and badge design and selection.
To tie together the above tasks, we found it beneficial to create a roadmap that simulates the content of the training, its completion, and the pages and clicks that the user must go through to obtain the certificate. . There are other tasks that require IT expertise, such as system integration with SSO, HR and other related business system (CRM) integration, data migration from previous systems, and website cookies. At the same time, the project manager works with the instructional designer to prepare all e-learning packages for adding content.
The list goes on and you can add more depending on your own business goals. In summary, a good LMS implementation project manager may not have all the technical expertise, but he or she must have good communication skills to coordinate team members. Be prepared to tackle the problem to the best of your ability to ensure that the schedule is met.
Step 4: Communication and change management with key stakeholders
To ensure a successful LMS implementation, you need buy-in and support from all stakeholder teams, including HR, corporate marketing/communications, IT, legal, and privacy teams (including external users and sales/partner teams). there is. ). Build collaboration with all stakeholders. The more people listen, know, and participate in project implementation, the more likely your LMS project will be successful. It’s also important to keep the public informed about the release’s progress at each milestone (color scheme, user interface, library and catalog, etc.) and update it frequently. The best way to do this is to spend a few minutes at a company town hall or cross-department meeting to get a quick update.
Step 5: Testing (as much as possible), soft launch, and user support at launch (go live!)
User testing is the most important and time-consuming step to ensure project success and user adoption. If your LMS is aimed at multiple users (use cases), it’s best to recruit a few volunteers representing each group to perform tests to further validate the process.
For each group of users, prepare scenarios/tasks to test, rather than just asking open-ended questions and letting them explore freely. This approach allows users to follow the steps, achieve the end result, and provide specific comments that should be addressed. Important scenarios/tasks include registering an account, logging into the system, selecting and registering for relevant training content, completing training and receiving points and certificates, and generating specific reports for administrators.
Based on user comments, be prepared to spend additional time and effort on iterations to make the process as smooth as possible. If test volunteers can complete all steps without additional instructions, it ensures that the platform setup is self-explanatory and sufficiently intuitive for end users.
When launching and implementing a new system, you want to reassure your users that help and support is available if they need it. Create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document and make it available to end users. If your chosen vendor supports integration with third-party help desk support systems and your budget allows, consider integrating with support tools for both FAQ articles and user ticket support systems. It’s not hard to imagine that end users will likely give up if they struggle without support for a new system.
Step 6: Continuous improvement after launch
As your organization’s business needs change, so will your LMS strategy. Take small steps and keep improving. As the training content expands, an improved and better organized menu interface to better guide the end user would be a great improvement and not difficult to achieve.
A good LMS vendor will also evolve with the latest trends. Continue to deliver value to your end users by leveraging broader LMS functionality, including reporting, data analysis, resource hubs, and communication tools (newsletters).
final thoughts
Finally, there are many general resources available from LMS vendors and consulting firms that provide LMS implementation services. Keep in mind that the key to success is ensuring that the list above aligns with your organization’s goals, requirements, stakeholder expectations, implementation plan, and success measures (such as ROI).
Editor’s Note: Ready to start your LMS implementation project? Explore eLI’s directory of learning management system vendors to find the best fit for your business needs.
