Welcome back to another blog in our POC blog series about executing your Camunda proof of concept (POC). This time we are going to focus on making sure your Camunda POC is a success and ways to ensure that it is recognized as a success by the necessary stakeholders in your company.
You will need to define clear objectives and success criteria, but in addition, you must make sure that success for the POC is a success for the business, stakeholders as well as IT. You need to make sure that you outline the specific requirements you want to achieve and how success is measured.
If you need to catch up, please read our previous blogs in the POC Series:
- How to Run a Successful Camunda POC
- Planning your Camunda Proof of Concept
- Picking the Perfect Process for your Camunda POC
Key factors for a successful POC
How you measure success can be the key to acquiring Camunda after your proof of concept or continuing to use it for a particular project. Being proactive about how to demonstrate success can be the key to your future process orchestration with Camunda.
Most overall success factors include performance improvements, costs reduction, and error minimization. It is very important that you determine that the technical and business requirements are met and that these are proven to the appropriate stakeholders. Properly establishing the success criteria upfront will allow you to understand the effectiveness of Camunda as you execute your POC and position you to make decisions.
Confirming the success of a proof of concept involves assessing whether the proposed solution or idea meets the desired objectives and demonstrates feasibility.
Read on for some ways you can confirm the success of a proof of concept.
Objective achievement
You want to ensure that your Camunda POC has specific objectives that are set and documented at the beginning of the POC. Objectives are often associated with an overall achievement goal such as “Improve the efficiency of our invoice approval process by implementing a Camunda solution.”
Many organizations utilize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to help to support the overall objective for a POC. For example, the following KPIs may be appropriate for our objective stated above:
- Reduce process cycle time taken for invoice approval from the current average of 12 days to 6 days
- Reduce errors in invoice approval process by 15%
- Increase real-time visibility into invoice approval status for the finance department
By documenting the overall objectives of the POC, it helps to gain the support of internal champions and stakeholders for product acceptance.
What is an internal champion?
An internal champion is an employee at your organization who is also very passionate about Camunda and your Camunda project. They can be an additional internal spokesperson with key relationships within the company to help influence key decision-makers and build excitement about your Camunda POC. They may already be recognized as a Camunda Champion.
Functionality testing
The next step in the process is to conduct testing on each individual key function and feature. This will address your specific requirements and verify that the proof of concept is working as intended and as needed.
As mentioned in our Planning your Camunda POC blog, we highly recommend documenting each requirement in a requirements matrix that details the following:
- Description of the requirement
- How to test the requirement
- The expected results after testing the requirement
- If the requirement was a success or failure
You may also want to include another column for adding comments. For example, if a slight configuration change might result in a success instead of a failure of the requirement. We have provided an example of how you might document your individual requirements in the Planning your Camunda POC blog.
Some organizations group the “must have” requirements and the “nice to have” requirements separately so that it is clear if a specific product meets the mandatory requirements.
Performance metrics
- As noted when discussing the POC objective, defining and measuring performance is a very important part of the success of your POC, assuming performance or performance improvement is the objective. If you have metrics that are easily quantified, this is a great way to evaluate whether the Camunda solution performs adequately and meets the required benchmarks.
User and stakeholder feedback
- Prior to starting your POC, it is important to meet with users, internal champions and stakeholders to confirm that their interests are covered in the requirements testing and/or the objectives for the POC.
- You want to validate that the POC aligns with the expectations and requirements of key stakeholders. This involves regular communication and collaboration with stakeholders throughout the POC process.
- When the POC is being executed, include users in the testing and then gather feedback from users or stakeholders who interacted with the POC. Their insights can provide valuable perspectives on usability, user experience, and any potential issues.
Risk mitigation
- One component of your POC might be reviewing the mitigation of risks that may have been identified at the beginning of the project. This might be minimizing security risks, or risks of incorrectly input data or even incorrect decisions. If the POC successfully addresses these risks, it is a positive outcome.
Documentation
- This might be the most important part of your Camunda POC. You need to make sure that the documentation for the POC is comprehensive, accurate, and includes all the requirements necessary to be successful. You may also want to include technical documentation, user manuals, and any other relevant materials.
Reproducibility
- In many cases, you may want to confirm that the Camunda POC results can be reproduced consistently in a variety of situations and different conditions. You may want to also repeat each requirement test more than once to confirm reproducibility and reliability. By repeating the requirement under different conditions, you ensure the reliability of your solution.
Summary
By thoroughly evaluating all of these aspects, you can be confident in the success of your Camunda proof of concept and make informed decisions about whether to proceed with further development or implementation.
More on Camunda POCs
To get more information on executing a POC with Camunda, please review our documentation on POCs. We also offer POC workshops if you are looking for additional guidance. Reach out to our consulting team to discuss a POC workshop.
Don’t forget to catch up on the POC blog series:
- How to Run a Successful Camunda POC
- Planning your Camunda Proof of Concept
- Picking the Perfect Process for your Camunda POC
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