The OGC Gateway™ Review examines projects at key decision points in their lifecycle.
It looks ahead to provide assurance that they can progress successfully to the next stage; the process is best practice in UK central civil government, the health sector, local government and defence, and has been adopted by numerous other countries for procurement-based projects using public money.
OGC Gateway™ Review delivers a ‘peer review’ in which independent practitioners from outside the project use their experience and expertise to examine the progress and likelihood of successful delivery of the project.
It is used to provide a valuable additional perspective on the issues facing the internal team, and an external challenge to the robustness of plans and processes.
Gateway review takes place at different points in a project’s lifecycle and the review team will need to consider the relative importance of the individual aspects of delivery confidence given the stage the project has reached.
When a project is being set up and has yet to complete its Business Case, the clarity of any scope, the viability of the governance structure and senior management buy-in may dominate the assessment.
While those factors are likely to be some of the key determinants of success for any project, later in its lifecycle the appropriateness of processes being used, and the skills and capabilities available to the project, will acquire more weight.
Gateway review can align with PRINCE2® as follows:
Review 1: Business justificationThis review focuses on the business justification of the project prior to the key decision to approve project initiation.
It aligns with the Directing a Project activity of authorizing initiation.
These reviews align with the Directing a Project activity of authorizing a Stage or Exception Plan, and they focus on ensuring that the project is still required, offers value for money and has a clear delivery strategy.
Review 4: Readiness for serviceThis focuses on the readiness of the organization to implement the project and aligns with the Directing a Project activity of authorizing a Stage or Exception Plan.
Another way of considering the alignment would be to organize the project’s stages to align to the reviews: initiation (Review 1), procurement stage (Review 2), outline design stage (Review 3), detailed design stage (Review 4), implementation stage, and handover stage.
A gateway review is not the same as a ‘gate’ or decision point (such as the end stage assessment), but a means of providing added assurance as input to the actual end stage assessment on whether the project is able to meet its objectives.
The cost and time of conducting gateway reviews should be included in the Project Plan and Stage Plans.
PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.
OGC Gateway™ is a Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce.