Microsoft Intune is the Microsoft’s mobile device management cloud service. We have produced content for the Intune team since the product’s initial release, including ghost writing blogs, producing end-user handouts, and creating videos. In this case, Microsoft asked us to build a proof-of-concept (PoC) playbook to help customers give Intune a trial run in their environments.
PoC playbook organization
A successful PoC is driven by business requirements. It has a well-defined scope, adheres to the defined structure based on the gathered business requirements, follows a surgical plan for each use case, and properly documents the results of the PoC. To help customers run a successful PoC, we built playbook documentation that organized the project into themes, scenarios, and use cases—much like good test plans:
Themes
Themes group scenarios in to high-level concepts that address specific business challenges.
Scenarios
Scenarios are examples of the business problems that each theme identifies.
Use cases
Use cases are solutions to the example business problems that each scenario defines.
PoC playbook delivery
We delivered the PoC playbook in multiple parts. The first part was a guide that prescribed how to set up and run the PoC. The remaining part was a spreadsheet for each theme. Tabs in the spreadsheets corresponded to the theme’s scenarios, providing step-by-step instructions for setting up the scenario’s prerequisites and testing each use case. In addition, the spreadsheets provided detailed tracking so that customers could see their progress.
The PoC playbook project was well received. In fact, Microsoft field personnel use the playbook when running their own PoC projects at customer sites. The plan is to continue maintaining the PoC playbook as Intune evolves.
