Stage Gates are phase-driven go/no-go decision points where EPLC activities are reviewed to ensure that appropriate OMB and HHS requirements are observed. A system cannot proceed without a “go” decision by the appropriate senior manager for the specific control gate. Stage Gate Reviews include:

1. Initiation Stage Gate Review
2. Project Selection Stage Gate Review
3. Project Baseline Stage Gate Review
4. Requirements Analysis Stage Gate Review
5. Preliminary Design Stage Gate Review
6. Development Stage Gate Review
7. Test Stage Gate Review
8. Operational Readiness Stage Gate Review
9. Operations & Maintenance Stage Gate Review
10. Disposition Stage Gate Review

Stage Gate Reviews are conducted by the IT governance organization (in conjunction with investment stakeholders) to ensure that projects, as they move through their life cycles, are fully complying with relevant IT project management requirements. The reviews also review project performance against baselines and require corrective action plans or rebaselining as appropriate to the situation. Most importantly, Stage Gate Reviews determine that the project is ready to advance to the next Phase. Stage Gate Reviews are also the most appropriate time for the IT governance organization, in consultation with affected Business Owners, to change project cost, schedule or performance baselines in response to changing HHS mission priorities.

Initiation Stage Gate Review
The Initiation Stage Gate Review considers whether the Business Needs Statement justifies proceeding to the Concept Phase for a full Business Case and preliminary Project Management Plan.

Project Selection Stage Gate Review
The Project Selection Review (PSR) is a formal inspection of a proposed IT project by the IT governance organization to determine if it is a sound, viable, and worthy of funding, support and inclusion in the organization's IT Investment Portfolio. This Stage Gate Review is one of the four that cannot be delegated by the IT governance organization.

Project Baseline Stage Gate Review
The Project Baseline Review (PBR) is a formal inspection of the entire project and performance measurement baseline initially developed for the IT project. This review is one of the four Stage Gate Reviews that cannot be delegated by the IT governance organization. The PBR is conducted to obtain management approval that the scope, cost and schedule that have been established for the project are adequately documented and that the project management strategy is appropriate for moving the project forward in the life cycle. Upon successful completion of this review, the Project Management Plan is officially baselined.

The PBR includes review of the budget, risk, and user requirements for the investment. Emphasis should be on the total cost of ownership and not just development or acquisition costs.

Requirements Analysis Stage Gate Review
The Requirements Analysis Stage Gate Review considers whether the project should proceed to the Design Phase.

Preliminary Design Stage Gate Review
The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) is a formal inspection of the high-level architectural design of an automated system, its software and external interfaces, which is conducted to achieve agreement and confidence that the design satisfies the functional and non-functional requirements and is in conformance with the enterprise architecture. Overall project status, proposed technical solutions, evolving software products, associated documentation, and capacity estimates are reviewed to determine completeness and consistency with design standards, to raise and resolve any technical and/or project-related issues, and to identify and mitigate project, technical, security, and/or business risks affecting continued detailed design and subsequent development, testing, implementation, and operations & maintenance activities. This review is one of the four Stage Gate Reviews that cannot be delegated by the IT governance organization.

Development Stage Gate Review
The Development Stage Gate Review evaluates whether the project should proceed to the Test Phase.

Test Stage Gate Review
The Test Stage Gate Review evaluates whether the project should proceed to the Implementation Phase.

Operational Readiness Stage Gate Review
The Operational Readiness Review (ORR) is a formal inspection conducted to determine if the final IT solution or automated system/application that has been developed or acquired, tested, and implemented is ready for release into the production environment for sustained operations and maintenance support. The IT governance organization cannot delegate this review.

Operations & Maintenance Stage Gate Review
The Operations & Maintenance Stage Gate Review evaluates whether the project should proceed to the Disposition Phase.

Disposition Stage Gate Review
A Disposition Review is conducted to ensure that a system/application or other IT situation has been completely and appropriately disposed, thereby ending the lifecycle of the IT project.

This phase-end review shall be conducted again within six months after retirement of the system. The Disposition Review Report also documents the lessons learned from the shutdown and archiving of the terminated system.
 

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