Stage gating is used to manage an initiative through it’s lifecycle and is used to ensure that the initiative needs to pass through a gate before being allowed to progress to the next stage.

Passing through a gate requires the approval of designated gate approvers for that gate – usually a combination of the business owner (or sponsor), the change team managing the overall improvement program and Finance (to validate the estimated savings).

Once the gate has been passed, the initiative owner can then start work on the planned activities in the stage after the approved, or passed, gate.

Stage gating provides multiple benefits:

• Provides defined ‘go, no-go’ decision points
• Ensures resources allocated efficiently
• Maximises success rate by ensuring quality control at each stage
• Enables accurate initiative status reporting