The document discusses quality gates, which are go/no-go decision points between lifecycle phases used to detect and remove defects. It describes how quality gates can be implemented throughout a project's lifecycle and a product's development lifecycle to improve quality. Specifically, it recommends having one quality gate for every transition between project phases and product development milestones. It provides examples of specifying quality gates, including defining what work products are inspected, the gate's purpose, how inspections will be conducted, and who will participate in the gate. Quality gates aim to improve predictability and solution quality by facilitating early and continuous defect detection and prevention.

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Quality Management Training
Enablers for Project and Product Quality Management
Quality Gates

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Quality Gates – Agenda
• Why? : Justification for, and Positioning of, Quality Gates
• What? Structure of Quality Gates
• How? Inserting Quality Gates throughout the project and
development lifecycles.
• Who? Roles in conducting Quality Gates

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Why?
Why we need Quality Gates?

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Justification and Positioning
• Justification for Quality Gates
• Quality gates are mechanisms for detection and
removal of defects in workproducts throughout the
project and product development lifecycles
• Quality Gates will inject quality procedures across all
the project management and product
development/acquisitions activities

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Benefits of Quality Gates
• Quality Gates act as “Defect Traps” to uncover and remove defects
as early as possible in the development lifecycle.
• Quality Gates embed quality activities into the project management
and development activities in a seamless manner
• Quality Gates ensure the explicit acceptance of the workproducts
developed in one phase are accepted by the team of the following phase
• Quality Gates could serve as a mechanism for enforcing the
standard processes across the project management and development
practices

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Quality Gates potential benefits
Target Benefit#1:
Predictable solution delivery
Quality Gates contribution#1:
Having Quality Gates throughout the project and the
development lifecycle phases aims to continuous defect detection
and prevention, thus leading to increased predictability.
Target Benefit#2:
Improved quality of solutions
Quality Gates contribution#2:
Having Quality Gates throughout the project and the
development lifecycle phases aims at continuous defect detection
and prevention, thus leading to improved quality of the solution
being developed.

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What?
What are Quality Gates?

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Quality Gates are a Go - No-Go decision points between
Lifecycle Phases
Quality Gate specification:
• What: What work products are we inspecting?
• Why: Reason for Quality Gate?
• How: Implementing Quality Gate? (How do we judge that the conditions are right for
starting Phase x + 1 (usually criteria defined in the form of checklist and verification
and/or validation techniques )?
• Who: Quality Gate Participants in the decision-making and Reporting?
Go/No Go
decision
Phase x
Phase x + 1
Quality
Gate
Incorrect
Workproducts
Phase x - 1

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Specifying Quality Gates
Quality Gate
name
Quality Gate for Phase X
Why? To establish the quality of Phase X workproducts before they can
passed to Phase (X+1) team to use them as the basis for their
development activities
What? All phase X wokrproducts that will be passed to Phase (X+1)
How? Workproduct inspection steps and techniques (appropriate
verification and validation techniques)
Who? - Representatives of: Phase X (to defend Phase x workproducts)
- Representatives of: Phase (X+1) (to accept Phase x
workproducts)
-Representatives of: Phase (X-1) (to ensure/check that Phase x
workproducts covers all Phase (Phase x-1) workproducts)
- CM representative (to baseline the workproducts passed through
the Quality Gate and check them in the Config. Library)
- QM representative - SME (Subject Matter Expert)

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How?
How can you implement Quality Gates?

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Project and Product Quality Gates
Project Quality Gates
Quality Gates across the Product
development life cycle
Requirements Analysis Design Development Testing Release
Product Quality Gates
Initiating Planning
Monitoring
and
Controlling
Executing Closing
Quality Gates across the Project life cycle
Product Quality
Gates
Project
Quality
Gates

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Project Management Quality Gates

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Embedding Quality Gates in the Project Lifecycle
• Ideally, there should be one Quality Gate for every transition from one project
phase to the next project phase
• Practically, we should decide on the number of mandatory gates that match the
project lifecycle, project characteristics and the company standard processes
and quality system.
Initiating Planning
Monitoring
and
Controlling
Executing Closing
Milestone QA
gate
Project
Start-Up
Third
party
Procurement
QA gate

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Applying Project Management Quality Gates
Project Management Quality Gates would correspond to Milestones M1 to M6

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Specifying a Project Management Quality Gate:
Project Start-Up QA Gate
Project start-up
checklist (Business
Controls)
Business need Project
initiation
Go/
No Go
Quality
checkpoint report
Project
start-up
Quality
Gate
Rejected
(Defect
Reports)
Accepted

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Product Development Quality Gates

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Embedding Quality Gates in the Product Development
Lifecycle
Quality Gates ensure that the workproducts produced in one phase are at the
right level of maturity (stability and correctness) before they are allowed to
move to the next phase of development
Quality Gates ensure that the workproducts produced in one phase are at the
right level of maturity (stability and correctness) before they are allowed to
move to the next phase of development
Requirements
Baseline
Design
Baseline
Developmental
Baseline
Product
Baseline
Operational
Baseline
Requirements
understood
Design
completed
Development
completed
ready for testing
Product
ready for
release
Product
deployed
• Quality Gates are injected at the development lifecycle milestones (to control the flow of
workproducts from one phase into the next phase)

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 Business Sponsor

Product release

Business, Systems and user
Requirements (PID)
Integration

Analysis

Design





 System
testing
Acceptance testing
Unit
development
Mainly Verification
Mainly Verification
Mainly Validation
with Verification
Product Development Quality Gates
(Across the Product Development Life Cycle)

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Specifying a Product Development Quality Gate:
Product Release Quality Gate
• Define why, what, how, and who
Product Release
Criteria
User
Acceptance
Testing
Product
Release
Go/
No Go
Process
Improvement
Requests
Product
Release
Quality Gate
System
Testing
Incorrect work products (Defect Reports)
Correct work
products

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Q&A, Summary & Lessons Learned