[Insert Project Name]
Pilot Plans
Executive Sponsor – [Insert Name]
Business Owner - [Insert Name]
Project Manager – [Insert Name]
Original Plan Date: [Insert Date, Spelled Out]
Revision Date: [Insert Date, Spelled Out]
Revision: [Insert Number]
About This document
As part of the product deployment phase, projects may elect to run a pilot or pilots to determine whether a full scale deployment would be entirely successful. Some well meaning people confuse pilots and proofs of concept. The Department of Information Technology project methodology uses pilots as segmented deployments.
Revision History
Revision Number / Date / Comment1.0 / October 16, 2007 / DoIT Project Management Office Revision
2.0
2.1
2.2
About This document
Reason for Pilot(s)
A brief Description of the pilot
Pilot(s) Selection Criteria
Pilot Scope
Agency Location or Bureau Selection
Target User Profile
Risks
Success Criteria and Metrics
Communications Plan and User Preparation
User Recruiting Plan
User Training Plan
Pilot Evaluation
“GO-No Go” Plans
Add Additional Users
Rollback Pilot
Cancellation
Freeze
Completion
Pilot Results Roles and responsibilities
Reason for Pilot(s)
Describes the business and technical drivers that led to the decision that a pilot is necessary; identifying the pilot’s key strategic objectives.
A briefDescription of the pilot
What is to be proven or demonstrated, or discovered through the sampling of the deployment?
Pilot(s)Selection Criteria
Pilots can test pieces of the product, segments of the population, network performance or other aspects of the full deployment. Identify here the aspects of the deployment that is to be tested, validated or proven:
Pilot Scope
The Pilot Scope section describes the scope of the pilot. It includes consideration of the following:
- The solution components that will be developed and deployed and the span of the customer’s operational environment for that deployment
- The business functions and technologies to be exercised during the pilot
- The anticipated schedule if the pilot requires a staged delivery
- The number of sites, users, and workstations
- The duration of evaluation period
Agency Location or Bureau Selection
Define the location(s) or Bureaus involved:. This may be depicted graphically with a diagram or by using a table to summarize the numbers of users, communication links, etc. Criteria may include:
- Testing goals
- Pilot visibility
- Proximity to team
- Ability or willingness to provide meaningful feedback
- Positive attitude toward project
- Willingness to provide testimonials
Target User Profile
Who are to be included in the pilot user population? What permissions or agreements need to be obtained for their participation?
User(s) / Location(s) / Manager(s) / Rationale / ObjectivesRisks
What are the known risks for conducting the pilot. These risks should be associated with the development of the pilot components as well as the deployment. These risks should be transferred to the master project risk document.
Success Criteria and Metrics
The Success Criteria and Metrics section defines the pilot’s success criteria and the specific measurements that will be taken to determine the level of success. Each measurement description should include a target metric and an acceptable range of values. The success criteria may fall into the following categories:
- System performance
- Operations cost
- Stability –down time
- User performance
- User satisfaction
- Business goals
Communications Plan and User Preparation
The communications plan and user preparation section outlines how users will become aware of the pilot and understand their involvement. It also addresses any special training requirements and necessary resources to ensure that the users can participate effectively in the pilot.
User Recruiting Plan
This plan should describe the key messages that will be delivered to the users and any incentives intended to promote participation in the pilot. You may include this information in the Communication Plan or create a reference to it.
User Training Plan
The User Training Plan section describes the plans for training users during the pilot. This may be different than the deployment phase plan for training users. You may include this information in the End-User Support Plan or create a reference to it.
Pilot Evaluation
How will the pilot be evaluated and by whom? The following table is illustrative only
Area / Functional Manager / Contact Information / CommentsApplication
System Operations
Network
Training Material
Help Desk
How will the project be assessing the quality of the pilot deployment process (e.g. user surveys, peer reviews, user interviews, etc?
“GO-No Go”Plans
The following describes the actions that are planned based on the learning from the pilot experience.
This section describes the factors that will be used to determine whether to transition to add more users or to rollback, cancel or freeze the pilot. These factors may include the estimated impact on business and the attainment of metrics. Describe contingency plans for failures and the thresholds for rollback, cancellation, freeze, or completion.
Add Additional Users
The Add Additional Users section describes the procedures for adding additional groups of users.
Rollback Pilot
TheRollback Pilot section describes the procedures for rolling back a pilot to the pre-deployment state.
Cancellation
The Cancellation section describes the procedures for canceling the pilot.
Freeze
The Freeze section describes the procedures for freezing the pilot deployment.]
Completion
The Completion section describes the procedures for completing a pilot.
Pilot Results Roles and responsibilities
This section describes the process for identifying, assigning, and following up on action items related to deployment or product issues identified during the pilot. The following table is illustrative rather than exhaustive of the results roles and responsibilities.
Area / Functional Manager / Contact Information / CommentsApplication
Operations
Network
Training Material
Help Desk
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