Microsoft® Solutions Framework Essentials

Testing Under Live Conditions

Lead Advocacy Group: Test

It is amazing that no matter how good the requirements are and how much user feedback is solicited, some users will always surprise the team with how they approach and use a solution. As such, there is no substitute for putting a solution out in front of a broad array of users to observe and measure their experience. Commonly called piloting a solution, this process involves deploying a limited release to production or to a production-like environment (e.g., staging environment) to validate that a solution works as expected under live conditions with "real" users.

As outlined in the Pilot Plan, successive pilots might be needed. Typically, each successive pilot broadens user involvement (e.g., ...