Roles, Responsibilities and Staffing Requirements of DESIRE2LEARN

¶ … Roles, Responsibilities and Staffing Requirements of Desire2Learn (D2L)

Defining the Project Roles, Responsibilities and Staffing Requirements for Desire2Learn (D2L)

For any large-scale software implementation project to succeed there must be a galvanizing objective that unifies those inside and outside the organization to a common vision and goal. For the Desire2Learn initiative, the communication, collaboration and continued support from outside the school district are just as critical as the need for support from individual schools, their principals and teachers. In setting the objective of upgrading classrooms to get the full benefit from the D2L learning management system, the project leaders will need to create a strong sense of ownership and support for positive outcomes across the district's entire ecosystem. The most important aspect of a project leader's role is to create and continually fuel high levels of authenticity, transparency and especially trust through and between project teams, including those outside the immediate organization (Anantatmula, 2010). This is especially true for members of the school district's ecosystem outside its organization. The project leader needs to orchestrate these roles together, creating a unified strategy to ensure the successful implementation and adoption of the D2L learning management system.

Defining and Managing Roles Critical to Project Success

Ensuring that the project succeeds within the school district requires that both the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Director of IT take leadership roles and provide guidance on the piloting, program management and project lifecycle management of the D2L system implementation. Both the CIO and Director of IT form a vital catalyst from a change management perspective as well, as entire organizations will more readily adopt to change when they see their leaders supporting a new strategic initiative or program (Sommerville, Craig, Hendry, 2010). The entire school district will see the D2L learning management system as worth investing their time and effort to learn and make successful with the CIO and Director of IT first endorsing the program and showing support. This also puts significant political support behind the D2L learning management system implementation as well, and that alone will solve many potential roadblocks to its success. The most critical element of success for any IT implementation is the support of the senior management team, and their combined efforts to reduce resistance to change through effective, clear communication that highlights the benefits of a new system or plan initiative (Peterson, 2010). The project leader must work closely with these two members of the school district's senior management team to ensure there is absolute support and continual reinforcement of the need for the D2L learning management system district-wide. The most effective project managers regularly meet with and gain support for their senior management team in explaining and illustrating the benefits of the new systems and programs being deployed (Anantatmula, 2010).