Project Stage-Gating - Case Study Example

My choice for this article is simple enough. The project stage-gating article must be read because I believe that the article is very useful in the decision-making process handled by every project manager. Project stage-gating is interesting as it tackles some issues which are often taken for granted when starting an innovative project.Over the past years, a large number of IT projects initialized had failed. Somebody can just imagine the total amount of time, labor, materials, and expenditures wasted for all these projects.

I believe that Vanderslius' main point in endorsing stage-gating is to save on resources that can be channeled to other more profitable ventures. I agree with him that project stage-gating can be an option in order to allocate company resources more efficiently. The "gates" needed to be passed by any project serves as a screening procedure that eliminates less viable and unprofitable projects.It is also important to note that project stage-gating is not only concerned with cost but on the future marketability and effectiveness of innovative technology.

I believe that is highly important as a project should not only be evaluated with regards to the cost of pursuing it but by the future benefits that it can bring the company. Starting a project is like an investment. As such, capital invested should be recouped together with the returns. For me, an investment that could not bring more value than the cost expended has no value.Although I agree with some of the stipulations of the article and I believe that project stage-gating is of value to project managers, there are some issues that cannot be avoided in pursuing any IT project which seemed to be overlooked by the article.

First, as any innovation starts with a simple idea, there is a huge problem in identifying which ideas can be started and would be profitable in the long run. It is also imperative that the company limits the number of possible ideas to be worked with. However, I think this is disregarded by project stage-gating. Even though at the beginning of a certain project, only individual works in the project cost will mount up if a lot of projects are being pursued. For me, it is imperative that the long-term and future viability and profitability of a project be evaluated to limit the total number of projects.

In order to efficiently implement stage-gating, I think the company also has to employ a strategy that determines the trend in the IT industry succeed. Since the success or failure of a project in the customer market strongly rests in the current and upcoming trends in the sector. There is no denying the fact that there is a rapid rate of obsolescence in the IT products market. Hence, product development should see to it that the company releases the right product at the appropriate time in order to succeed and even survive.

Another pitfall of the project stage-gating is its incapacity to really determine the profitability of a project. As the viability is reviewed at each stage of implementation, some trends may emerge and the previously dropped project may deem worth pursuing after all. In this case, the company should have in-depth market intelligence.It cannot be denied that the committee will be composed of humans who are by nature biased. This poses the tendency of favoring pet projects and will hinder the company in choosing the most viable and profitable projects.

In conclusion, I believe that starting a project means taking on risks. It is the task of a project manager to minimize this risk by employing certain tools like project stage-gating. However, they should be cautioned that using this method will only minimize and not eliminate all the risks involved.