Jory MacKay on February 18, 2025 How to use the “Stage Gate” process on complex projects
Lack of consistency, frequent scope changes, and poor governance are three of the most common reasons that projects fail.
If you recognize these challenges, a structured project methodology, such as the Stage Gate process, can help you overcome them, by bringing control and consistency to your deliveries.
The Stage Gate process breaks projects down into distinct stages and gates.
Each gate serves as a checkpoint to monitor project progress, mitigate risks, align stakeholders, and make key decisions before proceeding further. Sounds pretty good, right?
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In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the Stage Gate process, including how it works, when to use it, and how it differs from other project management methodologies.
What is the Stage Gate process in project management?
The Stage Gate process is a project management methodology that breaks projects down into a series of defined stages and gates, each used to manage, validate, and control a project as it develops.
The gate at the end of each stage is used as a review point to ‘check’ if the project is still on track before proceeding to the next stage.
To pass through each gate, project managers must showcase their key achievements, adherence to schedule and costs, and demonstrate their progress towards goals. From this, they’ll seek to gain agreement from stakeholders to proceed.
While this might seem overly bureaucratic, it’s actually a great way to control projects that are highly complex, have many moving parts, or have numerous stakeholders.
But, this sort of phased approach to project management isn’t new. As the manufacturing industry grew in the mid-1900s, the profession of project management became more structured, with a focus on tools and techniques (such as Gantt charts) to help break projects down into more manageable parts.
After this, in the 1970s, the phased approach properly formed following a groundbreaking paper from leading computer scientist Winston Royce.
In it, Royce introduced the concept of distinct stages of work, with project teams only moving to the next stage once the previous one is complete. This later went on to become commonly known as ‘waterfall’ project management.
There are many reasons that stages and gates have been used in project management for nearly 100 years. Let’s take a look at the benefits of using a Stage Gate style approach:
- Creates structure and focus. Breaking projects down creates a structure that all other project activities can build from. Having structure not only increases the chance of project success, but helps the team focus on the right things at the right time.
- Ensures projects are controlled. For management, the Stage Gate process helps ensure projects are properly controlled. Regular gates provide checkpoints for oversight and review, ensuring projects can’t spiral out of control.
- Reduces risks. Talking of spiraling out of control, gates serve as great opportunities to identify, analyze, and review risks. This helps strengthen a project’s risk management plan and avoid unwanted disasters.
- Boost stakeholder engagement. Breaking deliveries down into bite size stages makes them easier to understand for project stakeholders across the business. Gates provide opportunities to bring everyone together and discuss key events in the project.
- Aids decision-making. With 28% of projects regularly getting stuck by slow decision-making, gates also provide a forum for reflection, alignment, and speedy decisions. Gates can also be aligned to well-known decision-making frameworks, helping to sync the project with other business processes.
Finally, all of these benefits come together to help teams build trust and confidence in a project’s ability to deliver its goals.
The stage gate process is a great way to control projects that are highly complex, have many moving parts, or have numerous stakeholders.
This confidence improves the chances of success, as key stakeholders will be bought into the process and champion the initiative to their teams.
Project stages and gates explained
As you learn more about project management, you’ll hear the terms stages and gates used quite a lot. But, in many instances, they get used incorrectly, causing confusion for project teams across the globe.
To clear things up, let’s take an in-depth look at the two core components of the Stage Gate process.
What is a project stage?
Sometimes referred to as ‘life cycle phases’, project stages refer to the distinct parts, and the associated activities, that occur within the project life cycle. Each stage has a dedicated purpose and forms a unique part of a project’s journey from start to finish.
There are many ways to break down a project, but the common project stages include:
- Idea/concept. The idea for a project is born and validated.
- Design/planning. The solution is designed, and the delivery is planned.
- Build/Develop. The solution is created (e.g., a skyscraper is built or software is coded).
- Testing. The solution is tested to ensure it meets the design.
- Launch. The product/service is launched to customers.
What is a project gate?
Project gates are checkpoints that are used to confirm whether the required activities and outputs in each stage have been completed. The questions that are asked during a project gate check may include:
- Have all tasks and project milestones for this stage been completed?
- Have the deliverables for this stage been created? (e.g., business case, project plan)
- Does the project still meet organizational success criteria? (e.g., strategic fit, competitive advantage)
- Is the project on time, on budget, and within risk appetite?
At the end of gate checks, a decision will be made to:
- Go. The project can proceed to the next stage.
- Hold. The project should pause before proceeding further.
- Recycle. The project should re-do parts of the current stage and come back for an additional gate check.
- Kill. The project is no longer viable and will be shut down immediately.
The stages, gates, and checks of any Stage Gate process should be tailored to the organization, helping align the process with the company’s size, shape, culture, and objectives.
What projects are best suited to the Stage Gate process?
Every project is unique, so it’s impossible to suggest that the Stage Gate process is the perfect approach for every type of project.
In fact, when starting any project, you can choose any methodology — such as Agile, Waterfall, or the Stage Gate process — so long as it’s the best fit for your project. To learn what style coul fit you best take a look at our blog article about project management types
Let’s take a look at the types of projects that are best suited to the Stage Gate process:
- High-risk projects. Where projects are very risky, the Stage Gate process ensures lots of control, governance, and reviews are put in place. This reduces the chances of making a mistake and ensures stakeholders are closely involved throughout the process.
- Regulated projects. In a similar vein, where a project is highly regulated (e.g., financial services, health & safety) the Stage Gate process provides clear checkpoints to evidence action and show progress towards compliance.
- Known, complex projects. It’s often thought that all complex projects should use a Stage Gate approach, but that’s not true. When a project is complex and the solution needs experimentation, an Agile approach is best. But, where the path through complexity is known and needs careful monitoring, the Stage Gate process is best.
- Projects with a high cost of change. Where a project has a high cost of change (e.g., it’s expensive to make adjustments mid-delivery) the Stage Gate process provides control and due-diligence. If the solution can be changed quickly (e.g., software code) Stage Gate may feel a little slow.
It’s important to remember that there isn’t a right or wrong way to deliver projects. No matter the type of project at hand, if the Stage Gate process feels right for you and your team, that’s the right time to use it!
Every project is unique, so it’s impossible to suggest that the Stage Gate process is the perfect approach for every type of project.
Breaking it down: The 6 phases (and 6 gates) of the Stage Gate process
Now that we know what the Stage Gate process is and when to use it, it’s time to see it in action.
While many organizations have their own unique stages and gates, we’ll take a look at a common approach used for new product development and explain how it works in real life.
Stage 0: Idea discovery
What gets done during this stage? All projects start with an idea that grows into a new and exciting initiative. Ideas may come directly from stakeholders or from dedicated events, such as a hackathon, hot house, or innovation workshop.
Gate: Idea validation — The purpose of this gate is to determine whether the idea is good. You shouldn’t invest too much time here, simply check that the idea aligns with strategy, is achievable, and passes a basic product-market fit test.
Other names for this stage: Funnel, Idea, or Concept stage.
Real life example: Pierre works as a Product Manager for TRCKR — a time tracking and productivity application. Pierre’s colleague suggests an idea to supplement their mobile app with a browser extension, helping users track time in more places. Pierre confirms it fits TRCKR’s strategy, that the team has the right experience, and that customers have previously asked for the feature.
Stage 1: Scoping
What gets done during this stage? Once the team has a solid idea, they move forward to scope it in more detail. This can entail gathering high-level requirements, estimating costs, timelines, and benefits, setting goals, and gaining stakeholder buy-in.
Gate: Feasibility — Having put some work into the idea, the feasibility gate is used to confirm the idea is worth further investment. Many organizations complete a high-level business case at this stage, evidencing financial viability and nominating a project sponsor.
Other names for this stage: Concept, Analyze, Definition, or Feasibility stage.
Real life example: Pierre teams up with a business analyst, Sarah, to explore the browser extension idea further. They complete basic customer research to identify the key requirements, estimate it will take 8 weeks to build, cost around $5,000, and could increase customer sign-ups by 10%. They complete a business case and submit it to the VP of Product for approval at the gate meeting.
Stage 2: Design
What gets done during this stage? Now that the project is confirmed as viable, it’s time to design the solution in greater detail. This includes detailed customer research, wireframe and UI designs, and prototypes. This stage often requires more resources, includes detailed planning, and is where money starts to be spent.
Gate: Design concept — At this gate, project teams will showcase their proposed solution, as well as provide an updated view of costs, schedule, risks, and benefits. A full business case, project plan, or statement of work will often be presented for approval at the gate review.
Other names for this stage: Planning stage.
Real life example: Pierre completes more detailed research and uses TRCKR’s design team to mock up some wireframes for the browser extension. The development team also completes a deep dive on the technical design, updating their time and cost estimates accordingly. Pierre uses the gate review to showcase the design and re-confirm the business case, before requesting approval to proceed into build.
Here’s where Planio comes in: Planio’s task management features are perfect for managing the Stage Gate process. Gantt charts make it easy to break down projects into key stages, tasks, and activities, with milestones perfect for planning and managing governance gates.
Stage 3: Develop
What gets done during this stage? The solution comes to life as the project team begins building the deliverables — whether a digital product, service, or physical item. During this stage, the project manager is also carefully tracking progress and costs to ensure everything goes to plan.
Gate: First version — By the end of this stage, the project should have a first version of their solution for demonstration. Project managers will also confirm that key milestones have been met, report on costs and benefits forecasts, and seek approval to proceed to testing.
Other names for this stage: Build, Implementation, or Construction stage.
Real life example: TRCKR’s development team builds the first version of the browser extension, validating their outputs against the designs and requirements. Pierre keeps an eye on their progress, ensuring the team hit key milestones as they progress. They demonstrate the first version of the extension to the VP, who’s happy with the output and approves them to proceed to beta testing.
Stage 4: Validate and scale
What gets done during this stage? Now it’s time for final testing and getting ready for launch. Depending on the test plan, project teams may release their product to a limited user group, gaining feedback to give them confidence that the solution meets their customer’s needs. Early marketing may also begin to build excitement for the new product or service.
Gate: Go-Live — This gate is the big one. Here, project teams will decide on their launch strategy for releasing their product to the world. Test checklists will be presented, as well as future plans for marketing, communications, and service delivery. The project sponsor will then make the final call whether to launch or not.
Other names for this stage: Testing, Validation, or Scale Up stage.
Real life example: Once the development team have completed their final tests, Pierre releases the browser extension to the Beta community. They uncover several bugs which are fixed quickly, and begin teasing the new feature on their social media channels. Pierre shares testing outputs and launch plans at the gate review, with stakeholders requesting formal launch in 3 weeks time.
Here’s where Planio comes in: Document storage and custom workflows make it easy to upload, share, and sign off key gate deliverables. Invite your stakeholders into the Planio system to demonstrate progress and control and provide confidence that the project should proceed to the next stage.
Stage 5: Launch
What gets done during this stage? The deliverables are launched to customers, with training, support, and communications put in place to support transition and onboarding. Once the initial go-live is complete, the project will look to close and the team will disband.
Gate: Project close — Once the go-live is completed, the final gate will be used to confirm that the project can close. As well as demonstrating the launch plan tasks and milestones were complete, project managers will also capture lessons learned and create a closure report.
Other names for this stage: Go-Live, Handover, Transition, or Closure stage.
Real life example: TRCKR releases the browser extension, accompanying the launch with new training and support guides, as well as free webinars to help users learn about the new features. After the four-week launch plan is completed, they receive approval to close the project, with the team members returning to their day-to-day roles.
Remember: In this example, we have shown a project that gets approval to proceed at every gate. Many projects don’t go like this, and will be asked to pause or recycle some stages, with circumstances sometimes causing projects to be stopped altogether.
Best practices for mastering the Stage Gate process
While the Stage Gate process may seem simple, it’s easy to go wrong as your project develops. Here are some best practices to follow to help you master the process!
- Set clear gate requirements. Be clear on the requirements for each stage gate, including what documents, evidence, and success criteria stakeholders want to see. This will help project teams do what’s expected and avoid unnecessary delays.
- Clearly defined roles and responsibilities. While this is important for all projects, in the Stage Gate process knowing who is responsible for approving gates is important. The approver(s) needs to have authority, but also a level of impartiality to ensure the right projects are progressed or killed.
- Tailor the stages and gates. Every company should use a combination of stages and gates that fit their organization. After all, a start-up software company looks entirely different to an Enterprise-level manufacturer, so why would their Stage Gate process be the same?
Final thought: Is the Stage Gate process right for you?
The stage gate process breaks projects down into a series of defined stages and gates, with each gate used as a review point to ‘check’ the project is still on track before moving to the next stage. It’s great for complex, risky, or compliance-driven projects that need control and close management to help them succeed.
But the Stage Gate process isn’t perfect for everything. In fact, 42% of businesses often use a hybrid approach — adopting Agile ceremonies alongside tools such as gate reviews to help balance flexibility, adaptability, and control.
But no matter the project, tools like Planio are perfect for helping take the admin out of complex deliveries. Planio helps teams track milestones and tasks, set clear success metrics, and stay organized throughout the project — no matter what methodology you decide to use!
Try Planio with your own team — free for 30 days (with no credit card required!)
