Imagine you’re tasked with overseeing an eLearning project. There will be five different interim deliverables provided, each of which must be reviewed two or three times as you cycle through drafts. Furthermore, you aren’t the only reviewer. In fact, there are five of them. All five must review and sign off on each deliverable. That means you’ll need agreement from five stakeholders on two to three drafts each of five different deliverables. In other words, you’ll need to get five people, each with their own thoughts and agendas, to agree on 15 occasions during the project.

If you’ve ever tried to get five people to agree on something, then you know why a review process like this can prove so challenging.

Reviewing deliverables may seem like the most innocuous thing. It turns out, though, that the process can be the most challenging part of overseeing an eLearning project and by far the leading cause of project delays and scope increases.

Three signs to look for

Here are three signs that you’re suffering from a painful review process – with potentially dangerous implications for your timeline and budget:

Once you’ve decided your organization will benefit from eLearning, the temptation to simply get started can be very strong.  Starting too early, however, is one of the leading causes of project “churn” (that is, lots of activity but little productivity), which in turn is a common cause of timing problems, budget overages, and strained vendor-client relationships. (Read about how to avoid all the major causes of project churn here.)

You see, most eLearning agencies are there to help you take your content and convert it into a meaningful learning experience. At the start, they’ll know very little about the topic being covered. They rely on you and your organization for guidance. If you and your stakeholders have not agreed on the knowledge and skills that are needed, your agency will get conflicting messages from subject matter experts and stakeholders or, in some cases, no real direction from anyone.

So, how can you know when you’re ready to start? You need to be able to answer these four questions: