Near Future LMS Priorities for Project Managers

 

A recent smallish survey reported several organizational priorities that can easily affect project managers. Organizations that use Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are making plans for the future and you need to know what may happen and how it may affect your plans for your projects.

More organizations are unsatisfied with their LMS this year than last year. Specifically, survey respondents say there will be less messing around with customization, and more dealing with challenges. In addition, a large percentage of survey participants are considering purchasing a new system or consolidating multiple systems. These will be major projects.

The Most-Often Cited Challenges

If you manage projects connected with learning management systems, then be ready for efforts to improve LMS performance. If the LMSs are working fine, then you may be asked to assist with moving more courses and related material to the existing LMS. And there could be a new effort to improve system administration in addition to any of those projects.

If you manage projects that use LMSs for training and perhaps regulatory compliance,  you might be asked to participate in an effort to get more employees to use the LMS courses. You might also be asked to support in your project the integration of new content on the existing LMS. HR managers and functional managers just love the assessments, testing and reporting provided by their LMS. I'm not sure if there is good evidence this information is used to improve organizational business outcomes or even if there is confirmation that there is positive return on investment for LMS-related projects, but they love those reports.

Finally, if massive integration projects are underway or if multiple LMSs are being consolidated, access to online courses needed by workers in your project might be disrupted.

If you are dealing with LMS issues in your project, please let us know what they are and how you are handling them.