Preceding each stage is a decision point or gate which serves as a Go/Kill and prioritization decision point. Gates are where mediocre projects are culled out and resources are allocated to the best projects. Gates deal with three quality issues: quality of execution; business rationale; and the quality of the action plan.

The structure of each gate is similar:

Deliverables: Inputs into the gate review - what the project leader and team deliver to the meeting. These are defined in advance and are the results of actions from the preceding stage. A standard menu of deliverables is specified for each gate.

Criteria: What the project is judged against in order to make the go/kill and prioritization decisions. These criteria are usually organized into a scorecard and include both financial and qualitative criteria.

Outputs: Results of the gate review. Gates must have clearly articulated outputs including: a decision (go/kill/hold/recycle) and a path forward (approved project plan, date and deliverables for the next gate agreed upon).