I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
What's the point of a gate review?
|
Hello Reader, What's the point of a gate review? It's easy to let one blur into just another status meeting on the calendar. A gate review is a control point: a go or no-go decision on whether the project should continue. It's a formal governance step, not a progress update. At a normal status meeting, you're reporting how things are going. At a gate review, the reviewers should be working from agreed criteria and evidence, and actually deciding whether the project carries on, pauses or stops. Your job is to provide the evidence for them to decide. Here's the test I use: if nothing (and no one) could realistically cause the project to stop, pause or change course, it isn't much of a gate. You might as well have a normal steering group meeting and be done. So, a real gate review shouldn't be seen as a rubber stamping exercise. You should feel a bit nervous going into it because it's there to hold you and the project team to account. And, if it's the right thing to do, to give you the go ahead for the next tranche of funding or whatever. I've written a full breakdown of how gate reviews work, who should attend, what the criteria should cover, and what tends to go wrong when PMOs get it wrong: Gate reviews: what to do and why you need them. Have a lovely week! Elizabeth Did you miss these?
|
Calling all Rebel Project Managers!
I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Hello Reader, HS2 is the UK's high speed railway between London and Birmingham, and it's one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Britain. It's easy to read the headlines about it, shake your head and move on. But the National Audit Office's latest report, High Speed Two reset, is much more interesting than the numbers. The railway is now expected to cost between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion, roughly twice what was expected in 2020. You might assume inflation did most of the damage....
Sponsored content: this email is brought to you by Software Advice. 2026 Pricing Guide What does project management software really cost? A practical look at pricing models, cost ranges, and the fees nobody mentions up front. Hello Reader, If you have ever been asked to pick a project management tool, or defend the one you already use, you know the hardest part is rarely the features. It is the price. Plans are tiered, per-seat, or billed in ways that only make sense after you have signed up....
Hello Reader, How does your PMO actually work? I don't mean what it does day to day. I mean where it sits in the organization, how it's set up, and how much say it has over projects. That's your operating model. And it's not the same as your staffing model (full-time, part-time or fractional) or your maturity level. A centralized PMO can be immature. A federated PMO can be highly capable. When you're choosing an operating model, you're really answering two questions, not one: Where does the...