How the engagement runs week to week
First, a map of where learning data travels
In the first two weeks your developer draws the path a learner record takes: where accounts are created, how enrollment happens, what the content reports back, where completions are stored and which other systems read them. They test it with a handful of dummy learners and a known SCORM or xAPI package, and write down each place the numbers disagree. That document is short, and it tends to explain a year of support tickets.
Tickets written by people who teach
Most requests come from training managers and instructional designers, not engineers, so we do not expect technical tickets. "Learners in the Leeds cohort cannot see module four" is enough. The developer works out whether that is an access rule, a prerequisite, a drip date or a caching problem and replies in plain language. Larger requests, such as a new report or an integration, get a one-page note first: what will be built, what data it reads and writes, and how you will check it.
Testing with accounts, not assumptions
Learning platforms behave differently for each role. Every change is checked on a staging copy as a learner, a manager or group leader, an instructor and an admin, on desktop and on a phone. Content tracking is verified by completing the course for real and comparing what the LMS stored with what the package sent. Anything that rewrites progress or grades is rehearsed on a copy of the live database, with counts compared before and after.
When a generalist should hand over to a specialist
A generalist is the right hire when your work crosses products. If it turns out that most of your backlog sits inside one platform, we will say so. Heavy LearnDash work goes better with a LearnDash developer, and custom activity modules or a major upgrade call for a Moodle developer. Because both sit in the same team, the switch does not cost you the knowledge already gathered.
How you will know it is working
Look at your support inbox. Questions about missing completions and locked courses should become rarer over the first couple of months, and reports should stop needing a manual fix before they are sent. Your training team should also find that questions get a clear reply in their own channel, without having to learn any jargon. If you are not seeing that, raise it with the project manager, and we will change the developer.