What is the Pilot Project and What are the Benefits?

by Yulia Lomanova | January 18, 2018 11:41 am

Note: This article was updated in July 2020. 

Given that every innovation requires a detailed analysis that provides the grounds for its realization, a well-conducted pilot is an ultimate tool to fine-tune a product before the long-awaited launch. Down below, we will tell you more about the concept of the pilot project and explain how it helps businesses to save money.

A pilot project is indispensable for evaluating possible outcomes, advantages, and challenges in implementing innovative technologies, as well as its cost, and stakeholders’ feedback. Given the buzzword status of this term, it may seem confusing for a newcomer concerning what is required from such an effort.

Basically, a pilot project can be considered a complex study of the product feasibility conducted before its implementation into an operational framework. The ultimate pilot output is a report that gives green light to a full-scale launch or outlines ways to improve the product.

Pilot projects are useful for deploying a concept that could result in risk or ambiguous outcomes, interfering with the normal flow of operations. The process requires a roadmap with a clear and realistic timeline, evaluation guides, and desired output that might be presented as a comprehensive report on the pilot process. The pilot summary report includes measured satisfaction of the requirements, stability, scalability, and ease of configuring the settings.

Here are the perks that piloting brings to the project’s success:

• Measures project quality. Pilot testing is specifically dedicated to examining project features and procedures without significant pressures or financial risks. During this stage, the quality levels can be defined and documented in order to decide whether the product is ready for a full-scale implementation.
• Helps test timing. Piloting allows us to set the right expectations and expose any possible issues in advance. The timely discovery of issues comes in handy when dealing with mission-critical production environments.
• Allows practice. Launching a pilot project gives room for the project team members to test their ability to work with the new concept and deepen specialized expertise.
• Gives insight into the capacity of the project. Scope pre-gathering exercises help better understand the required durability and amount of required resources, while participants can always contribute their ideas as the technology gets deployed.
• Allows risk prevention. Issues, identified during this stage, can be tested, mitigated, or possibly solved much easier and cheaper than after the official launch.

Related Posts:

• From Troubled Launch to Excellence: A Startup’s Real-Life Success Story[1]
• How to Achieve a Balanced QA Approach in a Startup?[2]
• Testing of MVP: What Is the Benefit for Startups?[3]

Source URL: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2018/01/18/pilot-project/

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