Stage gate

A stage gate divides a programme’s life into stages and places a decision between them. What makes it a gate rather than a milestone is that something is decided there, by somebody with the authority to decide it, on evidence prepared for the purpose. NASA’s space flight programme requirements, NPR 7120.5F, set the structure out plainly. At each Key Decision Point the Decision Authority determines whether the programme or project is ready to progress to the next phase and sets its content, cost and schedule commitments, on documentation meant to show that definition and plans are mature enough, and records whether and how it proceeds, with any additional actions, in a signed Decision Memorandum.

A review and the decision it informs are different things. In the same document, the independent life-cycle reviews provide information for the Key Decision Point rather than taking the decision. The UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority describes its Gate Reviews from the same side: they give independent guidance to senior responsible owners and examine programmes at key decision points to provide assurance that they can progress to the next stage. A gateway review, on that description, advises the decision at a stage gate rather than taking it.

In Saudi Arabia the term appears in one body’s remit. Article 4(12) of the Organisation of the Expenditure and Projects Efficiency Authority, published in Umm Al-Qura, assigns the authority the task of «التأكد من استيفاء متطلبات (البوابات المرحلية) للمشروعات قبل إدراج المشروعات في الميزانية وخلال كامل مراحل كل مشروع»: verifying that projects meet stage gate requirements before they are included in the budget and throughout every stage of each project. The article says what the authority verifies; it does not itself set out what a gate requires.