Content Half-Life Test

Content Half-Life Test is a screening rule for LMS engagements: before scoping a build, estimate how many months a course stays accurate, then match the platform and the retainer to that clock. Compliance modules can hold for 18 to 24 months; product training for a fast-moving SaaS client may decay in 90 days. The framework matters because agencies price LMS work as a one-time build when the real cost is refresh labor, and a stale catalog is exactly the expensive, unused repository the category warns about. Absorb LMS markets AI agents that draft courses from documents in under an hour, and LearnUpon's Create+ claims course creation 90% faster at 10% of the cost, which changes refresh economics but does not remove the review burden. Run the test per client: short half-life content justifies a managed retainer, long half-life content justifies a fixed build fee.