Quality Gates in Project Management

Abstract

Projects are temporary and unique endeavors and require active management of their integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, and communication according to the Project Management Institute.

One tool to control project management is the Stage Gate approach that divides projects into stages with gates and tracks their progress and success. In the 1990s a modification to focus on especially schedule, cost, and quality was established known as Quality Gates. A quality gate represents a checkpoint of predefined criteria set by the project manager to evaluate the current progress of a project. Hereby a focus lies on the three aspects of time and cost, both resource-related and quality (2). After assessing the specified benchmarks and standards, an evaluation of passing or failing the gate is made.

This article sets the quality gate model into the picture with other phase gate models and points out its differences, benefits, and limitations. More weight lies on the quality criteria and its control in project management and its lifecycles. Besides, how four main tenets set, assess, and complete gates together with intermediate milestones. The article also explains the required steps a project manager needs to take in order to introduce quality gates for projects. A proposal of applying the quality gates by segmenting projects into the three stages of front-end, middle, and back-end gates for different project stages is suggested with a detailed successive explanation. Finally, the concern of resource-intensity in quality gate processes is discussed whereby more focus on scoping and lean management for projects is recommended. Also, the development from sequential towards iterative quality control is elaborated along with expanding the application from product-only towards service-oriented sectors.

Abb. Quality Gate Process: QGP

Big idea

Text

5 Ws + 1H of Quality Gates

Who? Project Manager, Process Manager, Project Owner
What? Designing, embedding and checking quality criteria
When? Whole lifecycle – from initiation to closing
Where? Developments and processes, e.g. in new product development (NPD), manufacturing, IT software, finance, M&A
Why? Gain control over quality development, status and state of the art
How? Define and assess quality criteria, milestones and gates

Example of quality gates from practice:

Figure 1: Quality gates for the production chain of battery cells, aggregating measurement of the relevant process parameters and intermediate product properties.

Quality Gates, Stage Gate and Phase Gate models

Quality gates are a comparable form of the stage-gate model and also other phase gate models. It is suggested to separate projects into the four different categories of:

1. Planning

2. Design

3. Development

4. Deployment

Also in the stage gate model projects are separated into phases because the outcome is often unknown and controlling can therefore take place after each phase. Setting gates after each phase, which must be passed before continuing to the next, allows control. Further, it enables early identification of potential risks and provides increased visibility.

According to PMI a project has the dimensions of integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, and communication and Cooper’s Stage Gate model intends to include all aspects in its model. Contrary, the Quality Gate model focuses specifically on the factors of time (schedule), cost and quality – all three of them are essential for a project’s quality outcome. In this way, it differs to the Stage Gate model. The gates are set timely independent and flexible, but in a sequential order – whereas its criteria to pass a gate are defined very specifically.

Quality gates as a project management tool have been established because practitioners felt that in our rapidly changing world and disrupting time there is less focus on quality due to a downside in order to increase time-to-market. Scholars therefore point out that “Quality gates […] are supposed to increase the confidence stakeholders have in a release” .

Quality Gates and Quality Management & Control

Quality management consists of four basic pillars, its planning, assurance, control and improvement . In project management, quality is of relevance in order to achieve the intended outcome and function of the endeavour. Already Cooper pointed out in his stage gate model in 1990 that many newly launched products lack quality inspection processes. To achieve control over quality management in projects several tools evolved over the years and gained publicity.

Total quality management

"A management approach of an organisation centred on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long term success through customer satisfaction and benefits to all members of the organisation and society."

European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model

“The EFQM Model is a globally-recognised management framework which allows organisations to achieve success by measuring where they are on the path towards transformation, helping them understand the gaps and possible solutions available, and empowering them to progress and significantly improve their organisation’s performance.” It helps to define purpose, create culture, forge strong leaders, transform organisation, foster agile practices, address unique organisational challenges, forecast the future.

(Lean) six sigma

The combination of the principles from lean and six sigma. Lean management focuses on continuous process improvement based on small, incremental changes with the overall goal to improve efficiency and quality. Together with six sigma it aims for improving processes and performance by narrowing resources and variations down to the minimum required.

Compared to these quality management tools quality gates focus on specific quality aspects at specific times, the gates, compared to non-stop iterative quality management perspectives. It sets and later assesses quality criteria and intervenes when errors occur in the project’s development. Thus, it becomes obvious that quality gates are rather different to prevalent and common quality management and control techniques. Using these argumentations project managers can justify its presence and application for endeavours where quality-heaviness is key.

Application

Quality Gate Process

Operating quality gates is an iterative management and an ongoing process. According to Salger et alii it can be grouped into the conceptual and operative level and is described in the Quality Gate Process (QGP).

Figure 2: Quality gate processes

The figure suggests iterative application of the processes.

Conceptual level:

On the conceptual level quality gate management takes place. First, the initial definition of quality gates and its criteria are required. Further, coaching and support of the project in the three aspects (cost, time and quality) takes place. Afterwards the criteria defined for the quality gates is gathered and consolidated and results in the lessons learned. In this stage a gate is ready for the pass or fail assessment. Last but not least adjustment and controlling of the quality gates takes place when assessing the criteria and deciding to go or not go into the next project phase.

Operative level:

The operative level describes the operations executed by the project manager along the project’s process. First is the initialisation where quality gates are set up for the project. Next is their active application of the initialized gates. The project manager is responsible for the active execution on the project’s deliverables. Last is the finalization where results are defined and lead to lessons learned.

The 4 Tenets – The Setup Advisory for Project Managers

To successfully implement and assess quality gates four essential tenets are of relevance.

Performance standards

To reach the quality gates, milestones have to be completed successfully otherwise a quality gate will very likely not be passed at the gate deadline. Milestones inhabit single criteria relevant for quality gates.

Figure 3: Simple milestone to quality gate representation (own figure)

An assessment of the project’s status is evaluated based on the actual performance of intermediate milestones. Each criteria must be met successfully by each party. When a quality gate is not met, the project cannot proceed to its successive milestones and gates. A project evaluation is required based on the governance decisions:

- Go
Criteria is met and a quality gate is passed
- No-Go
Criteria is not fulfilled and a quality gate is failed
- Defer
Criteria is deferred to another responsible or gate
- Modify
Criteria is changed and can implement quality gate assessment pass or fail

Criteria – benchmarks and standards

Quality gates and milestones require evaluation criteria. Benchmarks and standards are utilized in quality gates to make the project’s status measurable and assessable. However, criteria must not necessarily be numbers but can also be of Boolean (Yes/No) character. Examples for quality indicators that can be used throughout the project stages are given by PMI:
- Number of errors found on drawings
- Number of defects found in design reviews
- Number of requests to fix bugs
- Number of failures during test
- The rate at which requests to make fixes or changes come into the system
- The rate at which fixes or changes are being discharged
- Number of customer field failures
- Number of customer complaints
- Warranty costs
The examples above represent the three axes of time, cost and quality respectively, provide good examples for project managers with less knowledge about the field, and provide a decent head start. However, it shall be noted that the suitable quality indicators differ from the application field, e.g. manufacturing, IT and finance.

Criteria control

Quality gates require implementation and control during the whole project life cycle. Every gate and several milestones should continuously assess and track the three aspects of project time, cost and quality. Every development project has planned and precisely scheduled quality gates, which is a project manager’s responsibility. Introducing a quality gate criteria checklist or matrix is beneficial in this case, an example is given below.

Figure 4: Example of a quality gate checklist (own figure with milestone content from PMI Global Congress 2003 )

Tracking

Along the project development and thus its milestones and quality gates, a project manager is obliged to track its progress. When assessing the milestone and gate criteria, deductions in terms of potentially necessary resource shifts are necessary. Thus, the information requires not only evaluation in terms of whether the project can proceed or not, inspection for possibly needed changes and alterations of the current or upcoming milestone and gate criteria is mandatory.

Phasing Quality Gates and Objectives

Quality gates can, nevertheless the total quantity, be grouped into three main categories, which are described by the following. These groups provide orientation to phase quality gates and suggest topics to cover quality management and control successfully. They follow the suggestions of PMI .

Front-end Gates

For this stage investigation of the project, its internal commitment, investing issues (time and money) and general project design are determined. Relevant criteria for milestones and the gates for this topic must be set. Later in gates, their status is evaluated accordingly. During this phase stakeholder, agree to the scope of the project as well. This stage is also known as project planning or verification. At least one quality gate is suggested to cover these aspects.

Middle Gates

This phase covers implementation, integration and validation readiness. It usually requires first prototyping and actual product/service development processes. Here project requirements are tested against their potential solutions. When the milestones and gates are passed one can assume all stakeholder are satisfied with the project’s first solution. The phase covers the aspects of both solution and readiness acceptance. In other words, the project’s design and development take place here. At least two quality gates are suggested to cover the two main aspects of design (solution) and development (readiness).

Back-end Gates

Finally, the field trial, controlled introduction and the general availability (release) of the project are covered in the back-end gates. For passing this gate the project manager needs to assure all stakeholders agree the project is complete and the project’s execution is now compliant with all requirements and faces no more risk. This is thus the project’s deployment. The gate is also known as the Go-Live phase. It is suggested to have at least one quality gate covering the final deployment check.

Tips and Tricks for Project Managers and Practitioners

I. It is suggested to call milestones according to the quality gate For instance, the milestones to achieve QG 1 should be named M1.1, M1.2 and the like. II. Milestones can also be in parallel When different departments/functional teams are working together and its work is required for, achieving a common QG it is beneficial to have department-dependent milestones in parallel. Figure 5: Parallel milestones in different funtional groups to quality gate representation (own figure) III. Add actual names to the quality gate checklist and not only a department. Put the responsible people, e.g. the department’s manager (John Doe, Morten Menigmand, Erika Mustermann) into the column for deliverable responsible instead of the department (HR, IT, R&D). Otherwise, afterwards discussion can come up when a target is not met and who was responsible for it. IV. The amount of four quality gates is advised for small to medium-sized projects However always assess the amount of quality gates needed and required according to the project lifecycle, its characteristics, scope and the company’s general procedure and quality standard. V. You cannot manager what you cannot measure It is desirable to have measurable criteria, however this is not mandatory. It can also be in the Boolean form of yes or now. Nevertheless, all sub-criteria must be met before passing on in quality gates. VI. One quality gate for each transition from one project phase to another See section Phasing Quality Gates and Objectives

Limitations

Resource Requirements

Claim:
- QGP is time and labour intense, project manager is required
- Project needs to be of a certain size, otherwise it is not worthwhile

Suggested workaround solution: Maybe mention lean possibilities; adopt the amount of quality gates to the project scope?

Sequentiality/Waterfall Model

Claim:
- Often it is claimed and critized that phase gate models such as the QGP are due to their native sequential developments harming (product and/or service) development

Suggested workaround solution: Show that QGP can also be iterative processes?

Non-product Realization Projects

Claim:
- Critics say QGP are mainly used in physical product realization projects because of quality nature

Suggested workaround solution: Give examples of software, service, IT applications

Annotated Bibliography

(1) PMI Guide - Project Management

(2) PMI Symposium – Quality Control with Quality Gates

(3) Quality Gates Concept in Battery Production

References

- ex1