Stage gate model

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The stage gate model is a process model for innovation and product development . Stage-Gate is a protected EU trademark of Innovation Management U3 and Product Development Institute Inc.

history

The stage gate model was developed by Robert G. Cooper in order to significantly optimize innovation and development processes. The model pursues a number of objectives which earlier models either did not take into account or were only considered less than optimal. So the goals are:

  • Quality improvement of the process implementation
  • Sharper focus and better prioritization
  • Parallel process execution at high speed
  • Use of a cross-departmental team
  • Explicit inclusion of market orientation and market assessment
  • Detailed information acquisition and forecasts in advance of development
  • Creating products with competitive advantages

Like so many other development models, the Stage-Gate process has also been updated and further developed, which, however, is more aimed at companies that already have in-depth practical experience with Cooper's process.

construction

The stage gate process divides a development project into several individual sections and so-called gates ( Gates ). The division into the individual sections takes place logically, so that an innovation is first analyzed at the beginning of the stage gate process with regard to its technical and economic quality before it is passed on to development and brought to series maturity and subsequent market launch . The number of sections varies depending on the needs of the industry or individual company; For example, ten sections are not uncommon in power unit projects in the automotive industry , while the Cooper standard is four to six sections. A central component of the Cooper model are also gates, which are positioned between the individual sections and act as milestones. Before a project team can tackle the tasks of the next section, a decision is made at the gates as to whether the project will be continued or canceled. The project is measured on the basis of previously defined results and criteria. This project evaluation is usually carried out by senior managers in the various areas, who control the resources required by the project team for the next section.

Characteristics

The strength of Stage-Gate is, among other things, that the control points draw attention to the quality in a much more targeted manner and process steps are not left out. Similar to the Tidd / Bessant / Pavitt process model, there is an explicit reference to corporate strategy, which is the basis for an effective process and success in the market. Another advantage of the Stage-Gate process is that each section is structured across departments, i.e. H. Tasks and decisions are never carried out by a single organizational unit, such as research or marketing, but all participating areas assume duties and responsibilities. Furthermore, the individual sections are ideally designed in such a way that a large number of activities can be processed in parallel by employees from the various functional areas. By means of the ongoing evaluation of whether a project should be continued or canceled, it is possible to distribute the resources of a company more effectively across the project portfolio and optimize them overall. The current version of the Stage-Gate process is characterized by a significantly higher flexibility in process flow and process organization. In this way, a project can also be continued conditionally within the framework of a gate decision without all criteria of the respective section being met, or work tasks in a subsequent section can already be started without a gate decision having been made. Even if Cooper sees the advantages in further process acceleration and even more efficient resource allocation, this updated process should only be used by companies that already have profound practical experience with Stage-Gate. The increase in flexibility is clearly at the expense of the robustness and low susceptibility of the previous process to failure. In addition, the normative character of the stage-gate process in general and the gates in particular is weakened, projects run the risk of always being continued to a limited extent instead of being terminated in time.

criticism

In recent years, the stage gate process has come under fire: In view of the growing pace of innovation, the process is too linear, not adaptive enough and does not encourage experiments.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 128ff.
  2. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 128ff.
  3. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 146.
  4. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 146.
  5. ↑ See Cooper (2002), pp. 147f.
  6. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 148.
  7. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 149.
  8. ↑ See Kleinschmidt / Geschka / Cooper (1996), p. 52.
  9. ↑ See Tidd / Bessant / Pavitt (1998), p. 52ff. and Cooper (2002), p. 147ff.
  10. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 146.
  11. ↑ See Cooper (2002), p. 146.
  12. ↑ Kleinschmidt / Geschka / Cooper (1996), p. 50ff.
  13. ↑ See Cooper (2002), pp. 165ff.
  14. ↑ See Cooper (2014): What's next? After Stage Gate, in: Research-Technology Management, Jan.-Feb. Pp. 20-31

literature

  • Robert G. Cooper: Top or Flop in Product Development. Success strategies: from the idea to the launch. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2002, ISBN 3-527-50027-8 .
  • E. Kleinschmidt, H. Geschka, RG Cooper: Success factor market. Customer-oriented product innovations. Springer, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-540-57519-7 .
  • Joe Tidd John Bessant Keith Pavitt: Managing Innovation. Integrating Technical, Market and Organizational Change. 3. Edition. Wiley, Chichester 2005, ISBN 0-470-09326-9 .
  • Sabine Pfeiffer, Petra Schütt, Daniela Wühr: Stage Gate. Gateway to more innovation in mechanical engineering? ISF Munich, Munich 2010 ( online , PDF file; 469 kB)

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