What to test in 30 days

1. Installation and configuration

• Install on a machine that meets the system requirements. Note how long it takes and whether your IT staff needed help.
• Confirm where the application stores its database and files (see Where your data lives).
• AtlasOA creates a default administrator account on first run. Change its password immediately, as the installer instructs.
• Decide how users will reach it: on the server itself, across your internal network, or through a reverse proxy with HTTPS (see Network requirements).

2. Users, roles, and permissions

• Create accounts for each role you would use in production and sign in as each one.
• AtlasOA roles are administrator, editor, and viewer, each with individually adjustable permissions (read, modify, delete, import, export, administer). Check that each role can do only what your policy allows.
• Record-level scoping: test whether each role sees only what it should. In AtlasOA today, any user who can read sees all programs; there is no per-program restriction. See Known limitations.
• Atlas K-12 roles are teacher, counselor, building administrator, and district administrator, plus an MTSS Coordinator designation. District administrators see every school; everyone else sees only students at their assigned school. Teachers see their whole school, not only their own roster. Confirm this matches your policy.

3. Authentication

• Try incorrect passwords and confirm sign-in attempts are rate limited and recorded in the audit log.
• Confirm sessions end at sign-out and expire after inactivity.
• If you use Microsoft Entra ID and are evaluating Atlas K-12, test single sign-on against a test tenant or test app registration. AtlasOA does not support single sign-on today.

4. Sample data and imports

• Load the sample data first so you can evaluate without any real records.
• AtlasOA: load your own data into the evaluation sample workspace with our CSV templates, then import real scores with the Excel rubric report or outcome assessment spreadsheets.
• Atlas K-12: import the sample CSV files, then a file with deliberate errors, and check that problems are reported clearly. Re-import a file and confirm records are updated, not duplicated.

5. SIS and LMS integrations

• Read the integration matrix for the honest status of your system before testing.
• Use a test or non-production instance and read-only credentials. Confirm the connection test reports clear, specific errors.
• Confirm what data is pulled and that nothing is written back to your SIS or LMS.

6. Core workflows

• AtlasOA: define program and course outcomes, build a curriculum map, record assessment results, run a closing-the-loop cycle, and generate an accreditation narrative for your accreditor.
• Atlas K-12: review a student profile, record a tier change with a reason, build a Smart Group, create an intervention plan with progress monitoring, and follow a Care Team workflow.
• Have the people who would use it daily do these steps, not only IT.

7. Reporting, evidence, and exports

• Generate the reports your accreditor, board, or state requires.
• Export data in each available format and open the files in the tools your staff already use. See Exports.
• Confirm you could leave: open the database file with a standard SQLite tool on a copy of it.

8. Audit logging

• Make changes as different users, then review the audit log and confirm who changed what, and when.
• AtlasOA checks the most recent 100 audit entries each time the Audit Log page opens and shows the chain status. Atlas K-12 can verify the full chain from its Security Health page.

9. Backup and recovery

• AtlasOA: create a manual backup, change some data, restore it from Administration > Backups, and confirm the change is gone. Atlas K-12: create a backup, stop the application, replace the database file with the backup, restart, and confirm the change is gone.
• Include the application's data folder in your institution's own backup system and test a restore to a second machine. See Backup and disaster recovery.

10. Network behavior

• Block all outbound traffic from the evaluation machine and confirm the application still works. Optional features you enable (email, integrations, offsite backup) will need their specific destinations.
• Watch the machine's outbound connections with your own tools and compare them with the network reference.

11. Security review

• Your security team is welcome to test the evaluation copy with its own tools. Report findings to us through vulnerability reporting.
• Review the security controls, validation status, and shared responsibility model.

12. Compass AI (Atlas K-12)

• Ask Compass questions your staff would really ask. Check that answers cite your district's strategies and stay within the user's permissions.
• Disconnect the server from the internet and confirm Compass still answers.
• Describe a student safety situation and confirm Compass immediately shows fixed crisis steps rather than a generated answer.
• See Compass AI privacy and architecture.

13. Making the decision

Write down your requirements before you start and score each one after testing. If something you need is missing, check known limitations and the roadmap and ask us directly. We will tell you whether it exists, is planned, or is not planned.