Stage-Gate Review Process in Project Management Templates

Stage-Gate Review Project Management Templates 

Welcome to our newsletter for Project Managers Seeking Excellence. In this edition, you will learn how to review the project at each Stage-Gate and you will be given the opportunity to enter our June prize draw.

How to perform a Stage-Gate Review...

I’ve heard of the term ‘Stage-Gate’. What exactly is it? 

A Stage-Gate is a checkpoint at the end of each phase in a project to ensure that the project has achieved its objectives and deliverables as planned. To ensure that the project is ready to proceed to the next phase, a Stage-Gate Review is performed. The review involves documenting the current status of the project and issuing a request to the Project Sponsor to proceed with the next phase of the project. 

Stage-Gate Reviews are completed at the end of the following project phases: Project Initiation, Project Planning and Project Execution. It is not necessary to complete a Stage-Gate Review Form at the end of the Project Closure phase, as approval to close the project is covered within the ‘Project Closure Report’. 

Before you initiate a Stage-Gate Review, you should first check that all of the activities listed in the Project Plan (for the current phase of the project) are 100% complete and the project is now ready for review.

Then undertake the following review procedures with your project management templates:

1. Review the Schedule to determine whether the activities within the current phase were completed on time and that any task slippage is adequately documented. You should not only compare the actual completion dates to the forecast completion dates, but you should also identify the ability of the project to deliver against the baseline completion dates specified in the Terms of Reference for the project. As a general rule of thumb, if the actual completion dates are within 10% of the baseline dates, then you have a reasonably high chance of delivering the overall project ‘on time’.
2. Review the Expenses to identify the current expenditure of the project to date vs. the planned expenditure listed in the Financial Plan for the project. This should include all capital and operational expenditure listed in the Financial Plan, as well as any unplanned expenditure which has accrued during the project to date. As a general rule of thumb, if the project is currently within 10% of the original budgeted expenditure, then you have a reasonably high likelihood of delivering the overall project ‘to cost’.
3. Review the Deliverables to ensure that all deliverables listed in the Project Plan have been delivered on time and are to the level of quality expected by the customer. List all of the outstanding
   deliverables by identifying any deliverables which were planned to be complete prior to this review, but are still in progress.
4. Review the Risks in the Risk Register to ensure that you have a clear action plan for mitigating all medium and high priority risks. Each risk identified should have already been reviewed and a clear set of ‘mitigating actions’ assigned.
5. Review the Issues in the Issues Register to make sure that each issue identified has been resolved within the planned timeframe. Any outstanding issues should be identified and a clear plan for mitigating the issue should be formulated.
6. Complete a Stage-Gate Review Form which outlines the results of the Stage-Gate Review. The Project Manager will usually complete the form and present the current status of the project to the Project Board for consideration. The Project Board (chaired by the Project Sponsor) may decide to cancel the project, undertake further work within the existing project phase or grant approval to proceed with the next phase of the project. These forms can be filled out using project management templates.

Conducting formal Stage-Gate Reviews are an important part of any Project Life cycle as they provide a regular detailed assessment of the project to date and allow the Project Sponsor to understand (and act on) the overall status of the project at each key milestone.

Download the Method123 Stage-Gate Review Form now to undertake project Stage Gate Reviews quickly and efficiently for your project.