Thanks to its extreme flexibility, Cerri Project can adapt to any process or methodology. One of the more popular industry methodologies is phase-gate review, also known to as a Tollgate or Stage-Gate® process.  

This document explains how to leverage Cerri Project to support a phase review process effectively and how to utilize its out-of-the-box, pre-configured phase review template.

A Phase Review process, (or Stage-Gate® process) is a project management technique in which an initiative or project (e.g. product development, process improvement, or business change) is divided into phases (or stages) separated by tollgates. Each tollgate represents a decision point, where a manager or steering committee decides whether to continue the project based on available information such as: Business case, risk analysis, resource availability (funds, talents, etc.). This methodology is sometimes referred to as stage-limited commitment or creeping commitment.

The phase review process has been widely adopted in industries such as New Product Development. Several standards are based on its basic principles, including:

• Stage-Gate® (trademark)
• Tollgate Review Process
• APQP (Automotive)
• Six Sigma

Tollgate Reviews

Tollgate reviews are decision-making meetings held at the end of a phase. A designated management team, often called gatekeepers, evaluates whether a project should proceed or stop based on predefined criteria.

• Quality of execution: Has the work been performed and is the quality satisfactory? Has the project yielded expected results?  
• Business rationale: Does the project still demonstrate value from an economic and business perspective? Are the schedule and budget viable?
• Action plan: What is the plan for the next phase, including deliverables, timelines, and resource requirements, needed for the project team to deliver the expected results?

A tollgate meeting can lead to four outcomes:

1. Go: Continue the project.
   
2. Kill: Terminate the project.
   
3. Hold: Pause the project.
   
4. Recycle: Reevaluate and make improvements.
   

• Deliverables (Input): Provided by the project team before the tollgate meeting.
• Criteria
• Outputs: Deliverables required for the next phase.

On a case by case basis, other deliverables may be added to the default list provided by the project template. It could also be the result of corrective actions or updates associated with previous stages or reviews. 

Project Evaluation

Along the phase review process, each project idea (request) and project are evaluated from different perspectives. Organizations will often look at value proposition, feasibility, risks, and strategic importance. Post evaluation, it is critical for companies to find ways of prioritizing projects across the entire portfolio.

Below is a list of the most-commonly found criteria used to evaluate projects. The capacity of the company to execute the project from a financial and resource perspective can also be included. 

• Strategic alignment
• Degree to which a project aligns with business strategy
• Strategic importance of the project

• Product advantage
• Unique benefits
• Meeting customer needs
• Value for money

• Market attractiveness
• Market size
• Market growth potential
• Competitive advantage

• Operational synergies
• Marketing synergies
• Technological synergies
• Manufacturing/processing synergies

• Technical feasibility
• Technical GAP
• Complexity
• Technical uncertainty

• Risk versus return
• Expected profitability (NPV)
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• Payback period
• Certainty of return/profit estimates
• Low cost & fast to do 

Scorecards

During each phase a number of tasks, documents, studies, and tests must be completed in order to provide information to support the next decision gate. This is essential as it involves the livelihood of the project. Different ways exist to evaluate the go/no-go decision to proceed to the next step. One of those methods is Scorecards, which define goals and minimum acceptance levels for each phase.

Each scorecard will carry all of the necessary information to make an informed decision at each tollgate.

Stage-Gate® Process

Developed by Robert G. Cooper,  the Stag-Gate method is widely used manage product development process effectively from ideation to product launch. It consists of a number of predetermined stages (phases) that involve a set of cross-functional and parallel activities that must successfully be completed prior to obtaining management approval to proceed to the next stage of product development. The entry point to each stage is called: a gate.

These gates often take the form of meetings that ensure the consistency of the process and serve as:

1. Quality Control.
2. Go/Kill checkpoints: Readiness checks, Must-Meet criteria and Should meet criteria.
3. Action plan markers for the next phase

Stage-Gate® is a registered trademark of the Product Development Institute Inc.

The Stage-Gate process typically consists of the following stages:

    1.  Discovery: 

APQP Advanced Product Quality Planning

Advanced Product Quality Planning is a process developed in the late 1980s by a commission of experts gathered from the 'Big Three' US automobile manufacturers: Ford, GM and Chrysler. This commission invested five years, analyzing the then-current automotive development and production status in the US, Europe, and especially Japan. At the time, the success of Japanese automotive companies in the US market was becoming increasingly remarkable.

APQP serves as a guide in the development process and a standard way to share results between suppliers and automotive companies. APQP specifies three main phases: Development, Industrialization, and Product Launch. Through these phases, 23 main topics are monitored, all of which must be completed before production begins. These topics include: design robustness, design testing and specification compliance, production process design, quality inspection standards, process capability, production capacity, product packaging, product testing, and operator training plans, among other items.

APQP focuses on:

• Up-front quality planning
• Assessment of customer satisfaction based on evaluation of outputs
  
• Support for continuous improvement
  

• Plan and Define Program
• Product Design and Development Verification
• Process Design and Development Verification
• Product and Process Validation
• Launch, Feedback, Assessment, and Corrective Action