If you’re planning to create a learning management system (LMS), working with requirements is an inevitable step along the way.
Requirements gathering is the first thing you’ll deal with after all these demo calls and follow up hustle: as soon as you choose an LMS development company, the project manager will offer to discuss what your platform should do and how it should deal with it.
Project managers know their job: in 39% of cases, software development projects fail because of poor requirements gathering.
Well, you’ll need to buckle up: the procedure of gathering the functional requirements for LMS is complex and somewhat cumbersome.
The good news is that you can start in a light mode by composing the general vision of your e-learning project firstly. We’ll help you with that in an instant!
After reading the article, or even skimming through the text, you’ll be able to answer three essential questions:
- What does the term “requirements” imply?
- Which LMS requirements are vital?
- Which functional requirements are vital for your LMS?
What is more important, we’ll provide you with an LMS requirements checklist you can share with your LMS vendor to save time and effort on hashing out the details of your project and to simplify the LMS implementation process.
Let’s move to the core of the issues!
Requirements vs features: what’s the difference and which go first
If you google the “learning management system requirements checklist” request, you’ll find out that in the majority of articles, the narration revolves around features.
That’s completely okay! Moreover, we’ll focus on features as well. But firstly, we’ll put all the ducks in a row by finding out what are “requirements” and “features” and why they are mentioned interchangeably.
The thing is as simple as building a house: requirements are the foundation, while features are the rooms, windows, and finishing touches that bring everything to life.
If you look at the topic from another perspective, requirements answer the question “Why?” while features answer the question “How?”.
Here is one more interpretation for sheer clarity: requirements define the “what for”—the purpose and goals of the LMS—while features are the tools that help achieve those goals.
And the final statement to drive it home: each group of requirements matches the respectful group of features. That's what we’ll demonstrate to you through three examples.
Why not jump straight to features instead of dwelling on requirements? Because starting with requirements is a beneficial approach that makes development more concise and well-grounded.
A requirements-first approach prevents you from missing vital features that might otherwise need to be added later—a much more expensive process than developing them as part of the initial plan.
Why the list of requirements for an LMS 1 and LMS 2 will be different
Can you think of two organizations that are twins in business goals, organizational structure, and operational processes? We can’t, and that’s perfectly reasonable—every organization is unique in how it delivers its core activities.
Naturally, this means that approaches to the learning experience are just as distinctive. Your strategy for building a learning process will stand out too; that’s why defining LMS requirements is so important.
The way a learning platform is shaped learners’ experience depends on the following organizational properties just to name a few:
- Industry. An LMS for healthcare needs functionality for compliance employee training and certification tracking. For a company in the defense sector, the highest data security and compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA are a must.
- Learning goals and culture. If the organization values continuous, self-driven learning, it might prioritize an LMS with self-paced courses, gamification, and social learning features. A more structured, compliance-driven organization may need fixed training paths with strict progress tracking.
- Employee skill level. An organization whose employees differ in level of expertise, benefits from adaptive learning paths that allow learners to proceed at their own pace or based on their existing knowledge.
- Business processes. If the organization values regular performance reviews, the LMS requirements checklist will include robust assessment tools and customizable reporting to track and evaluate employee progress. Moreover, these tasks may require an LMS that integrates with other internal systems (e.g., HR, CRM, or project management tools).
To illustrate the need for a custom approach to LMS functionality planning and LMS customization, let’s compare two real-world examples of learning platforms’ capabilities and features:
- High Pass Education custom LMS solution—a platform for providing test preparation as a service for mental health professionals.
- Kennesaw State University's Brightspace—an LMS for an academic institution.
Two LMSs requirements and features comparison
As you can see, two platforms differ in learning content delivery, testing, outcomes tracking, and other sets of features. It illustrates the following transparent idea: one can’t compose the versatile and comprehensive list of LMS requirements that suit each and every case.
What can be done is creating an LMS requirements checklist to serve as a starting point for any company.
This very list of requirements and features is what we present to your attention.
Key LMS requirements
Splitting the software development requirements into technical and non-technical is a traditional approach, and we’ll follow it.
Firstly, let’s sync with our understanding of both types of requirements:
- Technical LMS requirements are concentrated on the back-end of a software project. It’s closely related to the infrastructure and the software layer in which data is processed and operations are performed. Technical requirements appeal to developers as they address how the system operates. End users have no idea of what’s happening on the back-end side of the solution.
- Non-technical LMS requirements are related to user experience. They define how the software product looks and feels. They address what the system does to meet the needs of learners, instructors, and administrators.
Now, let’s look at the essential specifications for both groups.
Five basic technical LMS requirements
Functional LMS requirements are built around accessibility, performance, data security, compliance, compatibility with external tools, and a learning portal’s scalability.
Responsive design
According to the Sciedo, 70% of learners are more enthusiastic about education when they can learn on mobile devices instead of laptops. The same figure—70%—applies to employees accessing their online courses through smartphones.
Need more reasons why your LMS should work perfectly on mobile devices?
Responsive design is what makes your platform accessible through different devices. You build one learning platform—and its design adapts to users’ devices. Any truncated texts, buttons that are too small, misaligned input fields, and other issues that put learners’ retention at risk.
Data security and compliance
If you ask us, it doesn’t make sense to talk about the need for security features in more than one sentence, and we’ve just hit that limit.
Instead, let’s focus on listing the essential ways of providing LMS security and compliance requirements for your LMS software:
- role-based access control—restricts access to sensitive data based on user roles (e.g., learners can view their own grades, instructors manage course materials, and admins control platform-wide settings)
- data encryption—the usage of SSL/TLS protocols to protect data during transmission and storage
- secure authentication mechanisms—the application of such features as Single Sign-On (SSO), two-factor authentication (2FA), and password policies to add layers of protection against unauthorized access
- secure hosting environments—leveraging cloud-based LMSs’ architecture with robust security protocols to provide infrastructure-level protection against cyber threats.
The application of robust data security measures ensures the learning system's compliance with GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA standards, fostering trust with all participants in the learning process and helping online education providers avoid costly penalties for non-compliance.
Format support and learning content upload
We’ve counted five common formats just for video content (MP4/MPEG-4, AVI, MOV, WMV, and WebM). There are also formats for visual and text materials, interactive content, assessments, and other tasks. Whatever formats you plan to use, there must be technical capability to support them.
SCORM Packages deserve special mention—these interactive, trackable modules ensure compatibility across LMS platforms, allow progress tracking, and enable the reuse of content in different courses.
Content upload is a separate task. When defining your LMS requirements, it’s essential to include robust content authoring capabilities to create and edit materials seamlessly. Additionally, ensure the system supports effective user and course management to organize, assign, and update content effortlessly.
Integration with enterprise tools
Here is the point where variability reigns supreme like nowhere else. You may want to integrate your LMS with the following external systems (and that’s the point where you may need LMS integration services or even consider a Drupal-based LMS, which excels in seamless integrations and flexibility):
- HR software—for integrating learning tools naturally into the onboarding process or assessments mechanisms into certification training
- CRM and ERP systems—for enhanced reporting, learning personalization, and workflow integration
- Content Management Systems (CMS)—for managing web-based course catalogs and syncing marketing pages with LMS content (for example, new courses and schedules are automatically reflected on the landing page)
- assessment tools—for interactive quizzes and gamified assessments
- eLearning marketplaces—for training content monetization
- payment gateways—for processing payments for paid courses or certifications.
What is the outcome of implementing features and tools for high system scalability? The result is an LMS that transforms into a large and efficient ecosystem, welcoming new course authors and learners while remaining stable and secure.
Five basic non-technical LMS requirements
We’ve tackled the hardest part—clarifying the technical LMS requirements. Working on non-technical requirements is easier, as they relate to things most of us deal with every day, such as user interface, communication, and reporting.
Intuitive user interface
“The LMS’s interface should be user-friendly.” Here is a brief breakdown of what this quite trite statement means:
- simple and intuitive navigation menus
- a clean and uncluttered dashboard
- quick access to frequently used features
- search functionality for courses and content
- customization options for user preferences.
This list may include many more details that differentiate a learning platform that retains users from one that doesn’t.
To illustrate what a user-friendly interface looks like in practice, below you’ll find an example of how Absorb LMS looks—the top-rated platform in G2’s “Higher User Satisfaction” category.
Personalized learning path
“Personalized learning paths let LMS users tailor their experience to individual goals and progress. Features like course recommendations, milestone tracking, and adaptable content keep learners motivated and focused on achieving outcomes." While this is often discussed in theory, let’s make it tangible with a practical example.
Reminders for mandatory training updates and recommendations for courses addressing new real estate legislation.
To provide personalized learning paths, an LMS should have tools for learner profiling, adaptive content sequencing, and progress tracking. Additional capabilities like gamification and real-time feedback are not only personalization tools but also motivators that keep learners from dozing off halfway through the second module and navigate their personalized learning path with honor.
Collaborative features
E-learning should be both productive and fun. One of the ways to make it really engaging and efficient is sharing: the experience, ideas, challenges, and breakthroughs.
That’s why you should think about including into your LMS requirements list the following tools:
- discussion forums
- chat rooms and live chats
- group projects and workspaces
- peer reviews
- social learning elements.
In this list, the social learning element stays apart as it’s not the set of features but a concept that needs a brief clarification.
As Helen Keller, the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, said,
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Social learning thrives on this principle, combining shared experiences to spark engagement and lasting understanding.
Progress tracking and reporting
While learning management system requirements to progress tracking and reporting aren’t the same, these two groups of features are closely related.
You can think of progress tracking and reporting features as the speedometer and the GPS of your LMS journey.
Progress tracking is the speedometer, showing learners how fast they’re moving, how far they’ve come, and what milestones they’ve hit. It’s essential for keeping them motivated and on course.
Reporting is the GPS, giving instructors and administrators the bigger picture—mapping out overall trends, identifying roadblocks, and ensuring everyone reaches their destination.
Together, they ensure a smooth ride, whether it’s a learner striving for personal growth or a company navigating the complex terrain of compliance requirements.
Without both tools working in tandem, the journey becomes aimless and risky.
Accessibility
Accessibility ensures that an LMS is usable by all learners, regardless of their abilities or circumstances.
- Features like screen readers and keyboard navigation make the platform navigable for users with visual or motor impairments, breaking down barriers to learning.
- Language support broadens accessibility further, enabling users from diverse linguistic backgrounds to engage with the content.
- By adhering to standards like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), an LMS promotes inclusivity and fosters a sense of belonging among all participants.
Accessibility isn’t just a feature—it’s a commitment to empowering every learner to succeed.
Conclusion
So, the requirements are discussed, set, and documented. The project moves to the stage of prototyping and designing. The development team, client organization, stakeholders, and everyone involved are elated, feeling that electric tingle of anticipation in their spine as they await something truly remarkable.
Boom! You decide to change some requirements. One tiny feature. Maybe two. Or three. “Team, are a couple of minor changes a problem for you?”
Developers can do almost anything. The question is: at what cost and with what risks can modifications be made?
The answer is as follows: the deeper the developers delve into the project, the more complications changes will bring. These complications include extended deadlines, increased budgets, and potential bugs.
For example, a client wants to add a leaderboard as an element of gamification to the LMS.
- At the prototyping stage, it requires minimal effort since no code has been written yet. At this point, designers and developers can easily adjust diagrams and blueprints to refine how the system will function.
- At the development stage, implementing the same feature entails reworking multiple layers of the system, such as the database, user interface, and reporting features. This requires additional development time and resources.
Well, the advice of thumb from AnyforSoft as an LMS development company is to discuss your needs with the development team as much as possible. The goal is to outline your LMS features early in the journey to avoid extra costs and reduce time to market.
We’re ready to start a conversation without delay!
The best way to move from a vague idea to a well-planned project is by partnering with an experienced development team that is capable of understanding your business and educational needs.
