Patent ID: 7212980

Claim:
A trial management system, comprising: a storage section storing one or more functions that are to be trial targets; a trial instruction giving section for receiving a user's instruction on a trial for at least one function of the functions; a specifying section for specifying the at least one function, a trial of which is started, according to the instruction received by said trial instruction giving section; and a control section for setting a trial period for the trial of the function specified by said specifying section in accordance with the instruction received by said trial instruction giving section, wherein if said control section detects expiration of the trial period for the function during execution of a job thereof, the trial period for the function being set according to the instruction received by said trial instruction giving section, then said control section postpones the expiration of the trial period for the function until the time the job of the function is actually completed and if said control section detects expiration of the trial period for the function when no job is being executed, the trial period expires with no postponement.