One of the biggest challenges that IT Pro’s face is trying to evaluate new technology and select the right solution for you.

One of the tools available is the use of Proof of Concepts (POC), a POC is a short project to evaluate the suitability of potential solutions. POC’s can, when done properly, be a valuable tool in our assessment of potential solutions. But POC’s are not always a success, why is that the case? The main issue tends to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what a POC is, often this can be caused by the suppliers misusing the phrase POC when really they are delivering no more than a demonstration.

A few weeks back I heard an episode of the excellent Virtually Speaking Podcast in which they discussed performance testing a significant part of which included a properly delivered POC.

The incorrect use of the term and poor definitions of POC’s is something I see often and find frustrating. Inspired by the Virtually Speaking Podcast team I wanted to take the opportunity to do a Tech Interviews episode on that very topic and who better to help me than the guest on that episode, VMware’s Dave Morera.

Dave is a Senior Solutions Architect and a primary part of his role is to help people to fully evaluate solutions with the use of POC’s, which makes him well placed to share some advice with Tech Interviews on how to effectively use them to help you make better technology decisions.

In this episode we discuss:

* What is POC

* How it differs from demo's and pilots

* What makes up a POC

* The importance of accurate definition of the problem , the scope and success criteria.

* Building a test strategy

* The importance of "owning" you POC

Dave’s experience and advice is hugely valuable, POC’s, when done well, are a great way of ensuring you can fully evaluate a solution and ensure it is right for you, Dave’s advice should help more of us deliver successful POC’s in the future.

Thanks for listening.

For full show notes:- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1GA