Evidence to stage-gate decision

Step by step

1. Define the gate Admin and Portfolio Manager

   Admin and Portfolio Manager define the review policy: Stage gates (Discovery, Plan, Approve, Build, Validate, Release, Sustain) with gate criteria per stage (e.g. for Approve: Business case signed, Architecture review complete, Funding source identified, Resource plan approved); Scorecards (Standard Proposal Score with dimensions Strategic Fit, Customer Impact, Effort, Risk, Time to Value; per-stage gate review Scorecards with stage-appropriate dimensions) and their scorecard dimensions with Weights summing to 100; strategic goals (the multi-year goals — typically 5–12 per company); the gate review board roster (Users with on gate review board: true); the Portfolio target-mix (e.g. Run 60% / Grow 30% / Transform 10%); the approval threshold and required quorum per Stage. Mid-cycle edits are blocked; next-cycle changes require Admin + Portfolio Manager co-sign.

   • Configure versioned decision criteria
   • Updates Stage gates, Gate criteria, Scorecards

2. Review and decide Portfolio Manager

   Initiative progresses through the stage gates ladder. When the Initiative Owner believes all gate criteria for the current Stage are met, they flip initiative status: Ready for gate. Before opening the review, the system checks each mandatory Criterion has an attached deliverable, creates a gate reviews header bound to the Stage’s gate scorecard, fans out gate scorecards line items per gate review board member, and emails reviewers with the packet and review-due date. Reviewers fill their gate scorecards (Score per Dimension, Vote, Notes); scores are masked from the Initiative Owner pre-decision. At the meeting, the Facilitator (Portfolio Manager) records the decision (gate review status: Approved | Conditionally approved | Rejected | Deferred) and decision rationale; after an eligible approval, the system moves initiative current stage to the next stage in the ladder and Status back to in flight. The decision service first enforces the frozen evidence requirements, score threshold, distinct non-conflicting reviewer quorum and expected revision. Conditional approval keeps the initiative at the current stage until its recorded conditions are satisfied and an authorized reviewer confirms. The facilitator cannot bypass those checks.

   • Enforce evidence, independent votes and quorum
   • Updates Gate reviews, Gate scorecards
   ApprovalA person approves before the work moves on.

3. Preserve the outcome Portfolio Manager

   When an Initiative passes the Release gate and KPIs trend toward target, the Sustain stage owns the long-tail benefit measurement. At end-of-life, Initiative Owner sets Status: Completed with actual end date; final KPI measurements feed the benefit-realization report; the Initiative drops off the live roadmap. Lessons (templates, Scorecard tuning, stage gate tuning) flow back to Admin + Portfolio Manager for the next-cycle MDM updates.

   • Close or correct through a recorded follow-up
   • Updates Initiatives, Gate reviews

Admin

Systems administrator. Owns the configuration spine — stage gates, Scorecards, KPIs catalog, gate review board membership, and the integrations health. Not the day-to-day cycle operator.

Portfolio Manager

The PMO Lead — owns the function. Curates Portfolios, organizes Programs, owns the Backlog ranking, runs the quarterly portfolio reviews, facilitates gate reviews, and owns the rebalance decisions.

Initiative Owner

Owns one Initiative end-to-end — authors the Proposal, prepares gate packets, owns the KPIs catalog for the Initiative, requests funding, raises Risks and Dependencies, and reports KPIs (or delegates to the named project manager).

Gate Reviewer

A reviewer-only role layered on the user — when assigned to a gate scorecards row (via the stage-gate-promotion workflow), gains read access to the gate packet and write access to own gate scorecards rows.