Agent pilots need owners, guardrails and a stop date

TL;DR

Use a discovery canvas to define business objectives, data challenges, agent use cases, governance, risks and success criteria before selecting a platform. For each agent pilot, record a named business owner, one success metric, guardrails, a stop date and a results-review decision gate. Fund adoption and optimisation as well as configuration.

Original by Karl-Johan Spiik, on Karl-Johan Spiik, Microsoft MVP. Read the original

This is our own summary, not a republication or full translation.

Governance takeaway

• Makers: Define a real business outcome and one measurable success metric before building an agent, rather than treating a polished demo as evidence of value.
• Admins/CoE: Maintain an inventory of agents with their owner and status, and require a pilot card with guardrails, a stop date and a decision gate.
• Security/Compliance: Review data challenges, governance and risks before funding decisions; the example pilot restricts the agent to internal data and no external models.
• Leadership/Business: Assign a named business owner and plan for decide, align, adopt and optimise phases, not configuration alone, so value can continue after go-live.