Author

IIA-Australia

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Extract/Description

A stage gate or a phase gate process is a project management technique in which a project or business initiative is divided into distinct stages or phases separated by decision points. At each gate, continuation is decided by a manager, steering committee or governance board. To enable the continuation decision, it is common to have a formal review at each gate. These are called gateway reviews.

Key Points

1. The purpose of a gateway review is to ensure projects unlikely to succeed are terminated early, though this does not always happen. Each gateway review provides advice to responsible parties about how to make their project successful.
2. Gateway reviews are widely used within Australia. They are frequently a requirement imposed by government on any project over a threshold value.
3. Many organisations declare that gateway reviews negate the need for other assurance over a project, but this is not correct.

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