Stage gates

A stage gate is a decision point in the life cycle of a project: at the gate, you approve the continuation of the project or reject it, explaining why. In FoxPlan, gates are organised in stage gate groups defined for the whole workspace (for example Production 1: Initiation, Release, Commissioning, Closure). Each project is attached to a group, and a milestone of the planning can carry one of the gates of that group.

• A milestone that carries a gate must be approved or rejected.
• A milestone that carries no gate needs no validation.

Feature to enable

Stage gates are disabled by default. They are enabled workspace by workspace, by a workspace administrator. Until they are enabled, no stage gate screen is displayed.

Enable stage gates and define the groups

1. Open Settings → Workspace, Stage gate tab (see Workspace).
2. Tick Enable stage gates.
3. Click Add a group, name it (for example Production 1), then add its gates with Add a stage gate. The arrows reorder the gates: their order is the order of the life cycle.
4. Click Save.

A ready-to-use group

As long as the workspace has never saved its groups, it offers the New project group: Need, Study, Development, Validation, Go-live. Projects can be attached to it right away. Edit, complete or delete it in the Stage gate tab: once the groups are saved, your settings apply.

Names are entered language by language, like custom field names: choose the Input language above the groups. A name entered in a single language applies to all; if English is entered along with other languages, it applies to the missing languages. An empty field shows in grey the name readers of that language will see.

Disabling or deleting

Unticking the option hides the stage gate screens again and blocks any new decision. Deleting a group or a gate deletes neither the milestones nor the decision history, but they no longer count in the projects concerned. Nothing is erased: enabling the option again, or recreating the group, brings everything back.

Attach a project to a group

In the project definition, the Stage gate tab lets you choose the stage gate group of the project. Only the project manager and the administrators (of the workspace, or project administrators inherited from a portfolio) can change it.

The group is saved as soon as you select it, so the tab has no Save button.

You can change the group during the project: the gates of the former group then no longer count in the project. FoxPlan warns you if some gates are already approved.

Attach a gate to a milestone

In the Planning, open the panel of a milestone: the Stage gate block offers the gates of the project group.

• Choose the gate the milestone stands for. The date of the milestone becomes the planned date of the gate.
• Leave the field empty for an ordinary milestone, without validation.

A gate is carried by a single milestone of the project. Once approved, it can no longer be removed from the milestone.

Approve or reject a stage gate

The Approve and Reject buttons of the Stage gate block are offered to the project manager and to administrators. The decision window asks for:

• Approver — the person or body that took the decision, chosen among the resources of the workspace, named or generic (for example a generic resource Steering committee). By default, yourself.
• Validation date — the date of the decision. By default, today; it can be earlier if the decision was taken in a committee before being recorded.
• Comment — required for a rejection: it explains what is missing to pass the gate. Optional for an approval.

The user who records the decision is noted automatically, with the date and time of recording, next to the approver and the validation date.

Gates are approved in order

A gate can only be approved if the previous gate of the group is already approved. Until then, the Approve button stays greyed out and a padlock shows which gate must be approved first. Rejecting remains possible at any time.

After a rejection, the milestone remains open: it can be presented again, then approved. After an approval, the milestone switches to the Closed status and the gate is acquired: it can no longer be rejected, approved a second time or removed from the milestone. An approval made by mistake can be reopened (see below).

Reopen a stage gate approved by mistake

If a gate was approved by mistake, the Reopen button of the milestone Stage gate block cancels the approval. It is offered to the project manager and to administrators. The window asks for the approver, the date and a mandatory comment explaining why the approval is cancelled.

After reopening:

• the gate is back to To be validated: it can be approved, rejected or removed from the milestone again;
• the milestone gets back the status it had before the approval (Open if that status is unknown);
• the project Stage gate column goes back to the previous approved gate;
• the approval is not erased: the history keeps the approval then the reopening, with their authors.

Gates are reopened starting from the last one

A gate can only be reopened if no following gate of the group is approved. Otherwise, the Reopen button stays greyed out and a padlock shows the gate to reopen first.

The project "Stage gate" tab

For each gate of the project group, in the order of the group, the tab shows:

Column	Content
Stage gate	The name of the gate
Status	Not planned (no milestone carries it), To be validated, Rejected or Approved
Milestone	The milestone that carries the gate
Planned date	The date of the milestone
Validation date	The date given when approving
Approver	The approver given when approving
Last comment	The comment of the last commented decision, with its author and date

The History button of a row shows every decision taken on the gate.

Track the stage gates

• Planning bar — one dot per gate of the group: grey if not planned, circled in orange if to be validated, red if rejected, green if approved, with the number of approved gates. Hover for the detail, gate by gate.
• Gantt diamonds — an approved milestone is drawn in green, a rejected milestone in red.
• Arbitrages and Global planning views — the Stage gate column shows the last approved gate of each project; add it from the column manager.
• Dashboard tag — the Stage gate progress tag (Add a block wizard, Tag type, project dashboard) shows the same pill as the planning bar: one dot per gate, coloured by its decision, and the number of approved gates (for example "2/4 gates approved").
• Dashboards — the Stage gate matrix block (Add a block wizard, Classic type) shows, for each group, the projects as rows and the gates as columns; each cell gives the status, the planned date and the validation date. It is available in the project dashboard as well as in the portfolio dashboard, where a single table brings together all the projects of a group.

Project state changes

A related option also tracks project state changes (approver, date, comment): see Project definition.

Decision history

Every decision is kept in a tamper-proof history: it can be neither modified nor deleted. It records the gate, the decision, the approver, the validation date, the comment, as well as the user who recorded it and the time of recording. The history can be viewed in the Stage gate block of the milestone and in the Stage gate tab of the project. A reopening is added to the history without erasing the approval it cancels.

Notifications

For each decision, the project managers and the milestone owner are notified, in the application (bell, Status tab) and by email, according to their notification preferences. The user who records the decision does not receive a notification. The message gives the decision, the stage gate and the comment.

Limits

Validation is single-level: one decision per gate, recorded by the project manager or an administrator. FoxPlan does not offer an approval workflow with several successive steps or automatic reminders to an approver.