--- layout: article title: Proof-of-Concept Project Checklist categories: [business] featured: false popular: false hidden: false tags: [project guide, poc] order: "05" redirect_from: - /article/bitwarden-proof-of-concept-project-guide/ --- This guide is designed by our Product, Implementation, and Sales specialists at Bitwarden to help guide your business in running a PoC of Bitwarden. Bitwarden offers a free trial for [Enterprise Organizations]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-organizations/), and we're confident that spreading out these steps over that time will help shape a successful PoC. |Day|Action|Key Person|Description|Resource(s)|Duration (hrs)| |:-:|:----:|:--------:|:---------:|:---------:|:------------:| |1|Identify an Organization Owner|Organization Owner|[Create a free Bitwarden account](https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/register){:target="\_blank"} for your Organization Owner, who will manage your Organization's settings, structure, and subscription.|[Create your Bitwarden Account]({{site.baseurl}}/article/create-bitwarden-account/)|0.1| |1|Create your Organization|Organization Owner|[Create a **free Organization** on the Bitwarden Cloud]({{site.baseurl}}/article/getting-started-organizations/#setup-your-organization). Once created, let us know and we'll upgrade you to an Enterprise trial.

If you're self-hosting, this Organization will be used only for billing purposes.|[Organizations]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-organizations/)|0.1| |1|(**Self-hosting only**) Download a License|Organization Owner|If you're self-hosting Bitwarden, a license file enables Enterprise functionality and the right number of seats for your instance.|[License Paid Features]({{site.baseurl}}/article/licensing-on-premise/#organization-license)|0.1| |1|(**Self-hosting only**) Install Bitwarden|Organization Owner / IT Team|Setup your Bitwarden server. We recommend deploying on Linux for optimal performance and lowest total cost of ownership.|[Install and Deploy]({{site.baseurl}}/article/install-on-premise/)|2.5| |1|Add Admins|Organization Owners + Admins|Onboard [Admins]({{site.baseurl}}/article/user-types-access-control/) to Bitwarden, who can manage *most* Organization structures. We also recommend adding a second Owner for redundancy.|[User Management]({{site.baseurl}}/article/managing-users/)|0.2| |2|Create Collections|Organization Owners + Admins|Create [Collections]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-collections/), which gather items for secure sharing with Groups of users.|[Collections]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-collections/)|0.25| |2| Create Groups|Organization Owners + Admins|Create [Groups]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-groups/), which gather users for scalable assignment of permissions and access to Collections.

If you decide to sync Groups and users from your Identity Provider or Directory Service, you may need to reconfigure user and Group assignments later.|[Groups]({{site.baseurl}}/article/groups/)|0.25| |2|Assign Groups to Collections|Organization Owners + Admins| Assign Groups to Collections, making shared items available to supersets of users. Test the *Read Only* and *Hide Password* options.|[Collections Assignment]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-groups/#edit-collections-assignments)|.5| |2|Share items to Collections|Organization Owners + Admins|[Add items manually]({{site.baseurl}}/article/sharing/#create-an-organization-item) or [import data]({{site.baseurl}}/article/import-to-org/) from another password management application.|[Sharing]({{site.baseurl}}/article/sharing/)

[Import to an Organization]({{site.baseurl}}/article/import-to-org/)|0.25| |2|Configure Enterprise Policies|Organization Owners + Admins|Enterprise Policies can be used to tailor your Bitwarden Organization to fit your security needs. **Enable and configure desired policies before user onboarding begins.**|[Enterprise Policies]({{site.baseurl}}/article/policies/)|0.1| |3|Add users to Groups|Organization Owners + Admins|Add a set of users to your Organization manually and assign them to different groups. With these users, you'll broadly test all pre-configured functionality **in the next step**, before moving on to advanced functions like Directory Connector.|[User Management]({{site.baseurl}}/article/managing-users/)

[Groups]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-groups/)|0.5| |3|Download Bitwarden Client Applications|All users|All Organization members should download Bitwarden on an assortment of devices, login, and test access to shared items/Collections/Groups and application of applied Policies. **If you're self-hosting,** users will need to [connect each client to your server]({{site.baseurl}}/article/change-client-environment/).|[Download Bitwarden](https://get.bitwarden.com/)|0.5| |4-6|Configure Login with SSO|Organization Owners + Admins|Configure Bitwarden to authenticate using your SAML 2.0 or OIDC Identity Provider.|[About Login with SSO]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-sso/)|1.5| |4-6|Configure and test user onboarding with Directory Connector|Organization Owners + Admins|Download, configure, and test the Bitwarden Directory Connector application, which is used to automatically sync users and groups from your existing directory service (LDAP, AD, etc.)|[About Directory Connector]({{site.baseurl}}/article/directory-sync/)|1.5| |4-6|Configure Directory Connector for production onboarding|Organization Owners + Admins|Execute on using Directory Connector to invite your remaining users to the Organization.|[Directory Connector Desktop App]({{site.baseurl}}/article/directory-sync-desktop/)|1| ## Deployment Best Practices We've seen a lot of deployments and have found that taking the following actions can positive contribute towards a successful PoC and successful adoption with your users: |Day|Action|Key Person|Description|Resource(s)|Duration (hrs)| |:-:|:----:|:--------:|:---------:|:---------:|:------------:| |4-6|Determine timeline for rollout to first-wave users|Senior Leadership & Security teams|There are lots of different strategies for rolling out Bitwarden. Take things at whatever pace best suits your team.| | | |7|Craft internal messaging about Bitwarden rollout|Internal Training & Managers|Bitwarden provides a lot of resources to help users quickly adopt, check some out on [Youtube](http://youtube.com/bitwarden) and on the [Help Center]({{site.baseurl}}).|[Youtube](http://youtube.com/bitwarden)

[Help Center](https://bitwarden.com/help)|| |7|Communicate to internal leaders about Password Management policies|Internal leaders / Security teams|Make sure your teams know about any [Enterprise Policies]({{site.baseurl}}/article/policies/), [2FA]({{site.baseurl}}/article/setup-two-step-login-duo/) or [SSO]({{site.baseurl}}/article/about-sso/) requirements, and password management best practices.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |**Total Hours (Cloud-hosted)**|**7.35**| | | | | |**Total Hours (Self-hosted)**|**9.85**|