Ad Hoc Software Trial to a Formalized POC

I have been involved in many ad hoc enterprise software proof-of-concepts (POC) that instead of being a tactical step in the evaluation and selection process, it has become an executive driven activity to be executed by the technical team with little guidance. Surprisingly, in many cases, a vague, just test the product is all that is provided. My best practice opinion based on successful POCs where I have spectated, participated, initiated, or executed the review are provided in the high level guideline below: