1. Purpose of the gate
Pilot complete is where enthusiasm meets evidence. The pilot will have produced some striking results and some disappointing ones, and the people closest to it will have formed strong impressions. The purpose of the gate is to replace impressions with the record: what the tool did on each reference case, whether each output matched the known answer, what kinds of failure appeared, how the engineers who used it judged it, and what that means for the business case.
The gate criteria are a pilot results report covering results against every success criterion; output review records showing every output checked against the known answer; failures seen, recorded with examples; and the business case updated with pilot evidence. The phrase every output matters. A pilot whose outputs were sampled, or checked only when they looked doubtful, cannot support a decision to qualify.
The question this gate answers is narrow: is formal qualification worth the effort? It is not a decision to use the tool on live work. A strong pilot leads to qualification, where the locked tool is measured on the full reference set under controlled conditions. A weak pilot should stop here, which is a good outcome if it is reached quickly and cheaply.
10 more sections for registered members.