Stage-Gate Project Management Model
Developed by Carla Canovas Iglesias
Facing increased competition at the pace of technological change makes launching new products key for differentiation in current companies. Even so, products continue to fail in the development phase, a fact that highlights the flaws in project management and the problems that companies address when adopting innovation. Therefore, it is crystal clear that using a well-established management methodology is a must for the success of a project. Dr. Robert G. Cooper recognized that product innovation is a process and by observing bold new products being driven to market, he developed the Stage-Gate model in 1986 and documented it in his book "Winning at New Products" [1]. The Stage-Gate model applies traditional methodologies to the innovation process in order to successfully conceive, develop and launch a new product. It consists in dividing the project into different phases separated by gates that are review and key decision-making points, as they allow the team to evaluate the current situation, align the expectations and decide whether or not to proceed to the following stage [2]. This new approach helps companies to have a visual roadmap of all the developing tasks, to minimize risks while innovating, and to adapt to environmental changes while satisfying the expectations of the project and the stakeholders. This article will cover what is the Stage-Gate methodology about, how to apply it in practice, what benefits it adds to the product development process, the limitations that are needed to be aware of, and finally, how to take a more efficient approach by combining it with agile methodologies.
Contents |
Description
Application
Implementation key factors
When to apply it
Benefits of the model
Limitations of the model
What´s next?
Innovative approach: Combination with Agile methods
Annotated bibliography
- Cooper, R.G. (1990). Stage-Gate Systems: A New Tool for Managing New Products
The article focuses on the need for better new product management in order to achieve innovation success and provides an overview of the Stage-Gate model as a solution to the challenge. The paper also gives evidence to prove the efficiency of the methodology and its advantages presenting several studies applied to firms using the Stage-Gate strategy. Some of the interesting conclusions that reflect the impact of performance that the model provides are quality focus on the activities, stronger market orientation, parallel processing, better project evaluations, and a visual road map. All in all, this article emphasizes the relevant steps in the Stage-Gate model and how its implementation leads to the market success of new products.
- Cooper, R.G (2014). What´s Next? After Stage-Gate
The article exposes a new approach emerging of idea-to-launch processes to make Stage-Gate a better and faster model. It suggests combining different systems in order to take the model to the next step: the integration of Adaptation, Agile, and Acceleration. The paper exposes the next-generation model which incorporates an iterative development to get a minimum viable product earlier to the client using agile methodology within the framework of Stage-Gate, focusing on the acceleration of the whole process. All in all, the future approach for development methodologies is exposed as a way of showing the importance of continuous improvement in order to launch products faster to the market.
