The Magic Bullet Myth By Peter R Lynch, VP Technology, CRKInteractive In my years as a technologist (e-learning and otherwise) there is one pitfall I see companies fall into over and over again…The belief that a new system will be a "magic bullet" that will completely serve all needs and will magically eliminate the need to do much work. This sirens call has lead many a project (and career) onto the rocks. While information systems can significantly cut workloads, dramatically increase productivity, improve information accessibility, and so on, there are several things you should consider before making any commitments that you might be your undoing.

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First, get rid of the belief that a single system will perfectly serve ALL your needs.

This is not, nor will it ever be true. Consider any system will initially cover only 70%-80% of what you will end up actually wanting. The best systems will allow you to extend their functionality to cover the rest. Be wary of systems that cannot be functionally extended by you (or your programming team). NOTE: I am not talking about configuration options but actual coding changes that modify the way the system will behave. Otherwise you may have to live without desired functionality or pay a high price to get a vendor to customize it for you.

Second, plan to do a lot of setup work.

No system, even without custom changes, is ready to go "out of the box". At the very least, a mound of information and configuration options will be needed before it is even marginally functional for your needs. Consider a learning management system that will serve 3 departments. Typically, you will need to setup all the people in those departments with their own logins and somehow communicate that information to them. Not to mention that there may be a specific catalog of courses for each department AND several departmental job roles that may require different mandatory and non-mandatory learning. It is easy to dismiss the amount of effort setup will actually take but do so at your own risk.

Third, manage expectations, especially your own.

Accept that you will run into issues that will delay the systems rollout and set expectations accordingly. If your schedule does not permit for any delay to overcome unexpected issues then you are in trouble before you even begin.

Forth, expect issues once users start hitting the system.

There is an old military saying that goes "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy". Not that users should be considered the enemy but they often do the unexpected. This can be minimized with a rigorous testing plan but these issues always happen. Plan for it and take it in stride.

Finally, understand that once a system is in production, it will need care and feeding to keep running smoothly.

Dismiss the idea that once a system is running that all the work has been done and you can sit back and relax. In a lot of instances, you have simply exchanged one set of tasks (what the system now does) with another (keeping the system updated and running). You can minimize this workload as much as possible with careful planning but will never be able to eliminate it entirely.

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About Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch is Vice President of Technology at CRKInteractive. His background includes more than 10 years experience in application development and over 5 years experience in developing technology based learning solutions. Visit CRKInteractive's Professional Services site to see how CRKInteractive can assist you in your online initiatives. 

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