| Best Practices for Implementing
a Learning Management System
Imagine you've been given the job of researching
and finding a suitable learning management system (LMS) for
your company. Where do you start?
Everyone knows that selecting the wrong
LMS can have terrible financial repercussions and hurt the
quality of your learning initiatives. What is often forgotten,
though, is that selecting the RIGHT learning
management system but implementing it poorly can be equally
painful.
This report, written by Gary
Woodill, Ed.D., director of Research and Analysis
at Brandon Hall Research; David Fell, vice
president of Business Development at Operitel Corporation;
and Christopher Woodill, vice president of
Solution Strategies at Navantis Corporation, is the first
in a four-part series on the process of implementing an enterprise
LMS.
A typical LMS can take months, if not a
year or more, to implement and can cost hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Getting it right is critical; getting it wrong
can be a problem for both you and your business. Essentially,
the process involves four stages:
Stage 1: Planning and Evaluating
Business Needs for an Enterprise LMS
Stage 2: Purchasing an Enterprise LMS
Stage 3: Implementing the Selected LMS
Stage 4: Maintaining, Supporting, Operating,
and Governing an LMS
This report focuses on Stage 1 and addresses
the following:
- Developing a business
case for investing in a learning management system
- Considering alternatives
to an LMS
- Articulating a vision and a scope
for the entire project, resulting in developing
a “project charter”
- Developing an implementation
strategy and a project management plan
that includes presenting the business case, assessing the LMS's impact on the organization,
and changing the management strategy
- Developing the communications
and marketing plan for the project
- Identifying all stakeholders
for an enterprise LMS
- Conducting a requirements gathering exercise,
including developing “use cases”
for each business unit and group of stakeholders
If you have thoroughly
carried out the above suggestions, then you are ready to prepare
and send out an RFP, investigate products and vendors, and
move toward purchasing a learning management system.
Getting this first
stage right provides a firm foundation for success in all
the later stages.
This report is also available through
a membership to the Brandon
Hall Research Library. |
