Design project stage gates with clear entry and exit criteria
A lightweight phase-gate framework with evidence-based criteria, decision options, and governance that fits your project sizes.
The prompt
Help me design a stage-gate framework for projects in my organization.
Types and sizes of projects: [e.g. "software, process change, and facilities; $20K to $2M"]
Current lifecycle or methodology: [waterfall / agile / hybrid / none]
Problems I want gates to solve: [e.g. "projects start without business cases", "no one stops failing projects"]
Who sits on gate reviews: [ROLES]
Appetite for process: [light / moderate / heavy]
Design:
1. The stages (typically 4-6, e.g. idea, initiation, planning, delivery, close) with the purpose of each.
2. Each gate: entry criteria, the evidence required (named documents or data, not opinions), who decides, and the possible decisions - go, go with conditions, hold, recycle, or stop.
3. Scaling rules: what small, medium, and large projects must do at each gate, so small projects are not buried in paperwork.
4. How gates work with agile delivery: what replaces detailed upfront plans (e.g. release goals, demo evidence, benefit checks).
5. A gate review template: one page, with questions reviewers should always ask.
6. Kill criteria: signals that should trigger a serious stop-or-continue discussion, and how to make stopping a project safe rather than career-damaging.
Also list the 3 most common ways gate processes fail (rubber-stamping, document theater, delays) and how this design avoids them.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Projects & Operations prompts
What to fill in
- e.g. "software, process change, and facilities; $20K to $2M"
- waterfall / agile / hybrid / none
- ROLES
- light / moderate / heavy
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
Related prompts
- Document requirements and process flowsGathers and structures business requirements, process flows, and acceptance criteria.
- Turn business insights into an action plan with owners and deadlinesConverts findings from an analysis, review, or workshop into a prioritized action plan with owners, deadlines, and success measures.
- Map my process step by step and find the wasteBreaks a workflow into steps and flags waste: duplicate work, unnecessary handoffs, waiting, rework, and steps that add no customer value.
- Find unnecessary approvals in a workflow and simplify sign-offsReviews every approval in a workflow, flags the ones that add delay without reducing risk, and proposes a leaner sign-off design with thresholds.