Near the End of the Pilot, Start Discussing the Next Steps

Martin could feel the momentum this pilot had Overall, it was a success. He began tentative discussions with the vendor on some additional features and bug fixes he would need to be able to recommend this product for deployment.

Jason looked at the handful of vendor consultants and laughed. He knew that even if he had three times the number of consultants that he had now, the pilot and POC would need to be redone.

The Methodology

Since the scale of the pilot is much larger than the POC, general consensus will build more rapidly about the project. In addition, since the pilot will last longer then the POC, objective data will build more quickly. This allows for trends to be charted and projections to be made about the outcome. This information can be used to start the discussions on attaining the goals and meeting the success criteria. These preliminary discussions will lay the groundwork for a final executive decision on the rollout. It will also be an indication of how probable a rollout will be. If it is looking positive, then preliminary planning can begin. If it looks like the rollout will not be approved, then a decommission plan can be prepared for presentation. Either way, do not wait for a decision to be made. Anticipate the decision and either build on the momentum currently underway or prepare to dismantle the project quickly and efficiently .