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Why Pilot Projects Matter More and More in Controlling
For software rollouts in controlling that come with substantial process change, I see a clear trend towards pilot projects. The reasoning is what interests me: it is rarely about simply trying out a new tool. It is about de-risking a complex decision and making change manageable.
Three aspects matter most from my perspective.
Understanding instead of reading about it. With methods like driver-based simulation in particular, a pilot lets the key stakeholders experience first hand whether the approach fits their own business model. That is validation in practice, not on slides.
Empowering the business function. Participants are not just trained, they gain hands-on experience with their own data. That is the precondition for a team later developing its model further itself, instead of raising a ticket for every change.
Change management you can experience. A pilot shows on a working prototype how the new approach behaves. That builds more acceptance than any theoretical presentation.
After a few weeks the result is usually a directly usable solution covering most of the requirements. And a team that has not only learned to operate software but internalised a way of thinking.
The real value of a pilot is not the result. It is that afterwards everyone knows what they are talking about.