10. Evaluation

The installation stage is over: The system is up and running. Staff are fully trained and bugs have been ironed out.

This next stage is called the 'Evaluation phase'. The evaluation stage looks at the overall project and considers how things went.

Evaluation involves all the key players in the project. These include

• Original client
• Project manager
• System Analyst
• Designers
• Developers
• Testers
• Support staff such as trainers
• A selection of end-users

Each person role has a part to play in the evaluation.

During the evaluation stage, two key questions are considered:

1. Does the finished solution meet its requirements?
2. Does it solve the problem?

The key document that drives the evaluation is the User Requirements Document. Perhaps not every detail will be covered, but certainly failures and particular successes should be discussed.

Further to those two questions, the evaluation considers

• Lessons learnt from the problems encountered so the next project will be even smoother and successful
• Any maintenance and support needed in the day-to-day running of the system