Final Report (UMJG 3032)

Title : Stage and Gate Management System

Name : Dannial Harrisson Anak Makerly

Matric No : A15MJ0030

Section : 03
Lecturer : Prof. Hiroshi Nakanishi

Definition of technology management is integrated planning, optimisation, operation, design

and control of technological processes, services and products and bring advantage of
technology for consumers. The typical concepts of technology management are technology
forecasting, strategy, roadmap and project portfolio.

One of way to manage technology is through stage and gate management system. A stage and
gate system is an operational and conceptual road map for moving a newly proposed product
from scratch and lastly to launching the actual product. In stage and gate management
system, the effort was divided into two distinct stages and separated by management decision
gates, known as gate keeping. The cross-functional teams must successfully complete a set of
prescribed cross-functional activities in each stage prior to obtaining approval from the
management to proceed to the next stage of the development of product.

Figure 1 Stage and Gate Management system

There are 3 major merits in applying the stage and gate management system. One of it is,
through stage and gate, discipline can be introducing into an ordinarily disordered process. As
being mentioned above, technology management is a process of planning, optimisation,
operation, design, and control. During the research and development stage of the project,
there would be some disordered process such as limited human resource, that may slow the
process thus delaying the launching of the product. Through discipline, the problem can be
reduced or prevented as everyone in the team work to solve the problem together.

Second is improves focus through gates where poor projects that are predicted to fail was
removed. This part is very crucial as the selected idea should be perfectly executed and
targeted to meet the consumers needs. A good idea will bring the project to success while bad
idea will eventually fail. So, ideas should gone through a strict screening where only the idea
that are more likely to succeed passed the gate.

Third is to ensure that the process is complete and no critical steps are omitted. Every step in
the process is very crucial and important to be carried out carefully. A small crucial step that
are omitted will cost the project a lot of money and time as the project must re-work the step.

Besides, the stage and gate management system can also be applied during my studies in
MJIIT. This can be clearly showed during group work or group project. The stage and gate
system helped us to choose the best idea with a clear vision of success and goal of the project.
This helped us to expand our research and development process in the idea thus expending
more improvements and possibility for the project to succeed. This can also reduce re-
working any omitted steps that will waste the effort and time and likely to accelerates the
product of initial idea.

As being mentioned above, the stage and gate management system will be very useful during
my final year project as the idea of the project must be clear and perfect before deciding to
put effort on expanding the idea. Idea screening that was implement in the gate system will be
the base of the entire project success. After the screening, the following process such as
research and launching the product of the idea should be perfect as the idea was expanded
during the following stage and gate process.

In conclusion, implementing stage and gate in everything we do may help succeeding our
project or our work. The system does not only limit to project work but also in our studies or
during we work. A clear idea is the base of a successful stage and gate management process.