Proof of concept (POC)

A POC typically refers to a partial solution, which is often built and installed on any old hardware kicking about the IT department. In terms of end user testing, a POC usually involves a small number of users, who are typically those in the IT teams, acting in business roles to establish whether the solution satisfies some aspect of the purpose it was designed for and is fit for purpose.

At the end of the POC, one of two things tend to happen. Firstly, nothing happens as it's just the IT department playing with technology and there wasn't a real business driver in the first place. This is usually down to not having a defined business case. In a similar way, by not having any success criteria, it will also fail, as you don't know exactly what you are setting out to prove.

The second outcome is that the project moves into a pilot phase, which we will discuss in a later section. You could consider moving directly into this phase and bypassing the POC altogether—after all, the vendor has already proved the concept, and to be honest if it's a production-ready solution that you can buy off the shelf today, then there is nothing conceptual about it. Maybe a demonstration of the technology would suffice and using a demo environment over a longer period would show you enough of how the technology works. Most vendors these days have a cloud-based test environment that can be used for prospective customers.