Help Center / Gates and Decisions

Gates and Decisions

When a gate is ready, and Go, Hold, Recycle or Kill.

Gates and milestones

Each project follows its company's gate process, with the milestones expected at each gate. A milestone has no owner until someone on the team takes it on, which makes it a deliverable. Gates shows each gate, what's on it, and what's still missing.

Take on a milestone from its gate: the title and definition of done come from the process, and you can change them to fit the project.

Gates: each gate of the HX-400 project with its status, how much of its work is verified, and 3 review findings holding Gate 3

Ready for review

A gate is ready when the gates before it are decided, all its work is verified, every milestone is taken on or not applicable, and no open Major or Critical review finding holds it. Its gatekeeper then sees it under Gates for my review on My Work.

Work that came from a review finding counts through its finding: a Major or Critical one holds the gate until it's fixed or carried forward, and a Minor one never does.

Gate 3 for its gatekeeper: not ready while 3 review findings hold it, so only Hold and Kill are offered, and each finding has Carry it past Gate 3

The four decisions

GoPasses the gate and opens the next stage; the last Go closes the project.
HoldPauses the project and freezes the clock: the days on hold count against nobody.
RecycleSends back the verified work the gatekeeper picks, with a rework date; each owner accepts the date or proposes another, then submits a new version. It's reopened, never erased.
KillIs final: open work is cancelled and the project becomes read-only. Go and Recycle wait until the gate is ready; Hold and Kill don't: the gatekeeper can pause or stop the project at its current gate any time, with a note.

Every decision needs a note, and every decision stays on the record on its gate.

Not applicable

Anyone on the team, or who manages it, can propose that a gate or milestone doesn't apply to this project, with a reason. It works for a gate still ahead with no work on it, or a milestone nobody has taken on. The project lead's manager approves or declines (leadership, if the lead has none); nobody approves their own. Approved or declined, it stays on the record.

Switch the gate process

The lead, a co-lead, a manager of anyone on the team, or an admin can propose it from “Switch process…” on the project, with the same approval. It can't happen while the project is on hold. Gates already behind the project stay; the rest come from the new process.