A pilot refers to what is almost a small-scale rollout of the solution, in a production-like environment, to be tested by real end users. The scope may be limited by the number of users who can access the pilot system, the business processes affected, or the business partners involved. The purpose of a pilot is to test whether the system is working as it was designed to, while limiting business exposure and risk. It should also touch real users so that you can gauge their feedback from what might ultimately become a live, production solution.

This is a critical step in achieving success as the end users are the people that will use the systems daily, and are the reason why you should set up some form of working group so that you can gather their feedback. This would also mitigate project failure, as the solution may deliver everything the IT department could ever wish for, but when it goes live, and the first user logs on and reports a bad experience or performance, you may as well have not bothered.

The pilot should be carefully scoped, sized, and implemented, which breaks down nicely into the following four steps toward a successful pilot, as shown in the following workflow diagram:

Let's have a look at these steps in a bit more detail.