LMS Selection Presentation Reformulated

Continuing on from my earlier posts:

• LMS Selection Team and Stakeholders
• LMS Selection Process

Great suggestions from everyone.

I've decided that Wendy's suggestion of asking for participation along the way is a great way to go. As I walk through different parts of the selection process, I'll ask for things that members of the audience have encountered for those who have gone through it. Thanks Wendy.

My outline has evolved a bit.

Topic #1 - LMS Dissatisfaction - Don't Do It!

• LMS Satisfaction Features and Barriers
• LMS Dissatisfaction on the Rise

Topic #2 - LMS Selection Process

I'm going to break the process into a few bigger buckets:

1. Start Up
• Form a core selection team and define stakeholders
• Define business and learning strategy
• Agree to process with key stakeholders
2. Evaluation
• Capture requirements and differentiating use cases
• Questions
• Interviews / expectation setting
• Drill down on non-standard items
• Conduct initial research, select initial vendors, make contact
• sometimes done via RFI
• eLearningGuild, Brandon Hall or Bersin might help
• Prepare and send RFP (Request for Proposal Samples)
  
• Select finalists
• Demos
• Pilot or hands-on tests
• Negotiate
• Final selection
3. Implementation
   
• Installation and configuration kick-off
• Define models, etc.
• Configuration, customization
• Testing
• Pilot
• Communication
4. Life with an LMS
   

Focus will be on:

• LMS Selection Team and Stakeholders
• Size of Team and Duration based on eLearningGuild Data (coming soon)
  

Topic #2 - Common Mistakes

1. Missing key team members such as IT
   
2. Not handling politics
• Favorites
• Incumbents
• Power plays
  
3. Not having an overall strategy defined
4. Not having agreement on selection process
5. Not defining communication path during selection process.
6. Over stating how much LMS you need and/or missing the opportunity for a Starter LMS.
7. Underestimating people required to operate an LMS.
8. No clear governance after selection.
   
9. Confusing content authoring selection and LMS selection.
   
10. Not defining differentiating use cases.
11. Not working with different constituents to capture differentiating use cases
12. Missing the opportunity to set expectations while gathering requirements.
    
13. Confusing an RFI and an RFP.
    
14. Confusing critical requirements as compared to requirements that are somewhere on the important - nice-to-have scale.
15. Putting the wrong requirements in an RFP.
    
• Making an RFP that will make vendors hate you.
• Writing an RFP that won't help you differentiate between vendors.
  
16. Missing a few critical questions in the RFP or selection process.
    
17. Tripping on contract negotiations.
18. Not understanding the implication of LMS models to your business.
19. Customization

This list is too long. I'm going to have to focus on only a few. Hopefully people in the audience will hit a bunch of these topics. I may try to focus it down to a Top 10 and count down to a Number 1 that is oriented around RFPs hence to move into my last topic. (Yes, I'm willing to cheat on what I see as the #1 mistake to make things flow.)

Topic #5 - Writing a Good RFP

The RFP strikes me as being a big enough topic on it's own. I'm going to focus on that alone in my next post. Which I need to do right away. The dang conference is coming up fast.

Okay, I have the high level outline and an idea (thanks to Wendy) of the style I'm going to use.

I don't think I'm going to have time for Implementation or Life with an LMS.