What is Agile Stage-Gate?

Agile Stage-Gate is a recent evolution of the Stage-Gate process. It combines the classic Stage-Gate structure (phases and gates) with the self-organized teams and short cycle iterations presented by Agile methodologies (often derived from Scrum).

Short, time-boxed iterations that focus on delivering a working product increase the frequency and speed of feedback from customers and users. This allows teams to focus on developments that deliver value to the organization and its customers. Plus, the ability to adapt quickly to market changes.

How Do You Incorporate Agile into Stage-Gate?

There are several ways to incorporate Agile into Stage-Gate. These include:

1. Introducing Agile Processes:

Agile project teams follow a traditional Scrum process, an iterative and incremental approach to project management. It requires daily meetings, a visual Scrum board, a sprint backlog detailing tasks, a graphical burndown chart showcasing progress, and more.

2. Aligning Focus

In Stage-Gate, teams may take a ‘divide and conquer’ approach, tackling several projects across different geographies. In contrast, speed is a critical differentiator when incorporating Agile. As a result, project teams are focused on one project only and work collaboratively on its completion.

3. Less Rigid Planning:

When adopting Agile processes, project plans must be more flexible and less defined compared to Stage-Gate. For example, only 20% of a product may have been defined before Agile development begins (as opposed to 40-60% in a traditional Stage-Gate process).

What is an Agile Stage-Gate Example?

Let’s explore how an organization might implement an Agile Stage-Gate hybrid approach.

A typical Stage-Gate approach (with 5 stages and 4 gates) might look like this:

  • Stage 1: Discovery and objective setting
  • Gate 1: Review objectives and ensure strategic alignment. Approve, refine, or kill before moving forward.
  • Stage 2: Planning and initiation
  • Gate 2: Assess the plan and begin resource allocation. Approve, refine, or kill before moving forward.
  • Stage 3: Product development
  • Gate 3: Test product based on original objectives and plans. Approve, refine, or kill before moving forward.
  • Stage 4: Pilot or market testing
  • Gate 4: Final tweaks based on user feedback and time to decide if it’s ready for launch.
  • Stage 5: Product launch

As you can see, this is a practical yet rigid approach. Most importantly, it relies on completion and box ticking at each stage to move forward. To make this Agile, here are some changes your organization can make. In this example, stages become sprints.

  • Pre-sprint discovery and planning stage
  • Gate 1: Approval of backlog, initial sprint plan, stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities, and plan for future product or project iterations.
  • Sprints 1-4: Product development (including testing and incremental feature updates)
  • Gate 2: Review sprint and obtain feedback. Use this insight to decide whether to continue as planned, pivot to change, or amend upcoming sprint plans. At the end of every sprint, the product is potentially shippable (even if it has not been launched to the public). Repeat this process until the final iteration of the product or project is ready.
  • Final product development/launch
  • Gate 3: PMs or developers assess the ‘readiness’ of the product or project for the market. Once approved, the launch takes place. Make further refinements if it’s not ready.
  • Continuous improvement
  • Gate 4: The project team obtains user and stakeholder feedback for future product iterations. This includes continuous monitoring, developing a feedback loop, and testing performance.

How Many Gates Are There in Agile Scrum Stage-Gate Checklist?

Stage-Gate, also called Phase-Gate, includes 5 clearly defined stages or phases and 4 gates.

So, what is Phase-Gate in Agile? Agile Scrum Stage-Gate or Phase-Gate is less rigid. Because of the continuous improvements associated with Agile, gates may be less distinct and will not necessarily stop a project’s development in its tracks. Instead, consider them a checkpoint to evaluate progress, detail the next steps, ensure goal alignment, and gain feedback. Organizations may still use the 5 stages and 4 gates approach in Agile Scrum Stage-Gate but opt for more flexibility.

Similarly, organizations can use Scrum meetings (called ceremonies) to track progress and answer questions throughout the process. These may help inform the number of stages and gates your Agile project requires. Scrum events include:

  • Sprint planning to identify what the team must achieve in this increment of time
  • Daily meetings, often called ‘Stand Ups’
  • A sprint review, where teams showcase work and receive feedback
  • A sprint retrospective, where team members reflect on success and areas of improvement

What are the Benefits of Agile Stage-Gate?

There are several benefits to adopting Agile Stage-Gate in project management (PM). It is highly suited to projects with changing requirements because of its rapid approach and incremental nature. Benefits include:

  • A focus on innovation, adaptability, and acceleration
  • Increased project flexibility and ability to pivot
  • The ability to test assumptions while the project progresses
  • Faster response to real-time changes and easier prioritization of tasks
  • Enhanced team, customer, and stakeholder coordination and communication
  • Boosted productivity (and, in turn, higher morale)
  • Reduced time-to-market (leading to potential decrease in costs and resource strain)
  • The creation of an ongoing feedback loop

What’s the Difference Between Stage-Gate and Agile?

The classic Stage-Gate process transforms how businesses approach project and product management from a long-term perspective. But for some businesses, a more flexible, real-time iteration of the Stage-Gate process is required. With Agile Stage-Gate, organizations gain all the benefits of agile working while yielding strong results from Stage-Gate. So, what are the key differences?

Stage-Gate

Stage-Gate or Phase-Gate uses a 5-stage and 4-gate process to structure and amplify new product development. Every stage details the work that must be completed and then evaluated. Think of the evaluation as the gate you must pass through to move on to the next stage. Project teams will ask questions about the project’s value, alignment with strategic goals, profitability, resource allocation, and more. They will decide whether the deliverable is ready to move into the next phase, if it needs adjusting, or if the project gets killed. This helps project managers (PMs) break projects into smaller stages and evaluate the deliverables as they go.

Agile Stage-Gate

Agile Stage-Gate takes elements of the classic Stage-Gate approach while implementing Agile methodologies. This includes shorter cycle iterations where teams manage their own workloads, aiming to create tangible deliverables at the end of each cycle.

As with Stage-Gate, the project is split into stages. However, these short increments are called sprints and last between 1 and 4 weeks. At the end of every sprint, there is a deliverable that key decision-makers and stakeholders can review, give feedback on, or approve at various gates. This enables the business to implement changes quickly, speed up time to market, and tailor the product to the project’s strategic needs.