Make the pilot answer a purchase decision
A procurement pilot should resolve material uncertainty that demonstrations, documents, and reference calls could not resolve. State the commercial decision it will inform, the evidence required, and the authority that can accept or reject the result. Government sourcing guidance recommends testing delivery assumptions and planning contract management before commitment, while the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's model provides a disciplined way to set an aim, define measures, and test changes on a bounded scale. [4][1]
- Which mandatory scorecard criteria remain unverified, and what pilot observation can resolve each one?
- Which supplier commitments must become measurable acceptance criteria or contract terms?
- What clinic work, configuration, training, support, and integration effort does the proposed service require?
- What event would trigger a pause, rejection, remediation request, or controlled exit?
- Who owns the final go, extend, remediate, or no-go decision?
Bound the scope and define acceptance tests
Define the supplier, product and version, configuration, clinic pathway, sites, users, assessment set, integrations, data boundary, pilot dates, support model, and exclusions. Connect each test to a requirement and name its evidence source, owner, threshold, and failure consequence. Use synthetic records for technical and exit rehearsals before any live clinical use, then complete applicable local clinical-safety, privacy, security, accessibility, and governance approvals. [2][3][4]
A pilot that ends in a decision
A five-step learning loop that connects bounded testing to an explicit decision without treating observation as proof of causation.
- Question
Name the uncertainty and the decision it blocks.
- Baseline
Define the pathway, measures, context, and starting evidence.
- Test
Run a bounded workflow with safeguards and dated adaptations.
- Study
Combine process, balancing, experience, safety, and resource evidence.
- Decide
Stop, adapt, extend, or scale against pre-agreed criteria.
Use a reusable procurement pilot charter
Store one signed-off charter with the procurement record and version it when the pilot changes. The following fields form a reusable template that a buying team can copy into its task or contract system. [1][4]
- Decision and scope: commercial question, accountable decision-maker, supplier, product version, configuration, pathway, population, sites, dates, exclusions, and dependencies.
- Acceptance register: requirement ID, synthetic scenario or observation, threshold, evidence location, evidence owner, due date, and consequence of failure.
- Responsibilities and safeguards: clinic and supplier owners, approved data boundary, access roles, incident route, pause authority, support route, and exit owner.
- Resource log: supplier and clinic setup hours, recurring staff time, support contacts, directly observed charges, and unpriced dependencies.
- Decision record: passed and failed criteria, missing evidence, deviations, residual risks, required contract terms, and signed go, extend, remediate, or no-go outcome.
Run the pilot as a controlled evidence log
Record each scenario, result, artifact, deviation, supplier response, clinic effort, and unresolved issue against the charter. Small Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles can clarify whether a remediation works, but every product, configuration, workflow, or threshold change should be dated. Preserve failed tests and the original acceptance baseline so that a later improvement does not erase the procurement history. [2][4]
End with a commercial go, extend, remediate, or no-go gate
Agree the options before results are known. Proceed to contract only when mandatory criteria pass, material assumptions have evidence, residual risks have accountable owners, and required supplier commitments are reflected in contract wording. Extend only for a named uncertainty with a bounded test and deadline. Require remediation when a correctable gap blocks acceptance. Choose no-go and execute the documented exit when the evidence contradicts a mandatory need or uncertainty remains disproportionate. [1][4]
- Attach the completed acceptance register, resource log, incident and deviation log, and unresolved-evidence list.
- State which conclusions apply only to the tested site, workflow, configuration, period, or sample.
- Record commercial dependencies, proposed contract protections, transition work, and exit completion.
- Have the accountable clinic owner sign the decision and review date rather than treating supplier sign-off as acceptance.
Sources and further reading
- Model for Improvement (opens in a new tab)Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Accessed 2026-07-13. Official IHI introduction to aims, measures, change ideas, and iterative testing for improvement.
- How to Improve: Model for Improvement: Testing Changes (opens in a new tab)Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Accessed 2026-07-13. Official guidance on small-scale tests, learning cycles, and implementation under different conditions.
- Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) guidance for buyers and suppliers (opens in a new tab)NHS England Digital. Updated 2026-05-20. Accessed 2026-07-13. Official assurance framework relevant to evaluating the safety, governance, security, interoperability, usability, and accessibility of a pilot deployment.
- The Sourcing Playbook (opens in a new tab)UK Cabinet Office. Published 2021-05-20. Updated 2026-06-15. Accessed 2026-07-13. Government guidance on delivery assumptions, evaluation, risk allocation, mobilisation, contract management, and exit planning.