Scope definition

The scope for the POC must be clearly defined and agreed upon. The success and eventual acceptance of the IIoT solution is not only dependent on the technology, but on how well the solution fulfills the business goals. Therefore, the business viewpoint is the predominant factor in defining the scope. The PoC should focus on demonstrating the business value, not necessarily the technology itself. In the early stage of defining the scope, stakeholders and managers from all viewpoints bring their concerns and desired business outcome and agree to a few ideas or use cases. Formal evaluation methods, such as score carding, can be utilized to develop more detail. The use cases can then be refined to formulate the high-level requirements and success criteria.

The high-level requirements enable the project team to evaluate the investment requirements, risks, and potential impact on the organization. A cost versus benefit estimation can be performed at this point for the projection of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (RoI), which will guide the stakeholders in prioritizing the projects. Once a use case is selected for a PoC, a time frame, project team, and success criteria should be defined before proceeding.