Software is quickly becoming integral part of human life as we see more and more automation and technical advancements. Just like we expect car to work all the time and can't afford to break or reboot unexpectedly, software industry needs to continue to learn better way to build software if it were to become integral part of human life. In this course, you will get an overview of how software teams work? What processes they use? What are some of the industry standard methodologies? What are pros and cons of each? You will learn enough to have meaningful conversation around software development processes. After completing this course, a learner will be able to 1) Apply core software engineering practices at conceptual level for a given problem. 2) Compare and contrast traditional, agile, and lean development methodologies at high level. These include Waterfall, Rational Unified Process, V model, Incremental, Spiral models and overview of agile mindset 3) Propose a methodology best suited for a given situation
Phase Gates / Stage Gates
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來自 University of Minnesota 的課程
Software Development Processes and Methodologies
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從本節課中
Software Development Models: Traditional Models
In this module we will learn about various traditional models like waterfall, RUP, Incremental, and Spiral models.
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Praveen MittalAdjunct Professor
College of Science and Engineering
Kevin WendtTeaching Specialist
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
[MUSIC]
In this lesson we are going to learn about a concept that you will see in
the organization, if they are primarily doing waterfall matters.
And, this concept allows organization to give opportunity for leaders.
Or organization to see like a opportunity in the middle
of the project to see if we want to continue or if you want to pivot.
So it provides this opportunity for the organization to review the progress and
see if you want to continue.
So, what does it look like?
So let's say, and it can be applied to any software development process.
So let's say this was the kind of software development process.
So once you apply the stage gates, or sometimes they're called phase gates.
You apply these checkpoints, into different parts or different places,
or different points of your software development process.
So for example, in this case, even before we get into the requirements phase.
They have a gate where organization may want to just validate if what they
are attempting to do, does it even align with their strategic point of view?
So, in the very first gate, if it isn't aligned, then you drop the idea.
And then so on and then so you can do it similarly between,
after the requirement, you can again assess and see if you want to continue.
And, on each of these phases, it might be that if you don't want to pursue then
that idea is scanned or you don't continue anymore and it goes into a trash can.
So that's the basic idea behind the stage gates or the phase gates.
So what happens, what do you check at these gate checks?
So there are three things,
the first one is that you check the quality of execution in the previous step.
So whatever we intended to do in the previous step.
Did we do it and what was the outcome of it?
How well was it done?
This next one is, based on what we have learned as part of the previous step,
does it still make sense to continue with this project?
So that's the second question that we ask.
And then the third one is, if it makes sense to continue,
then do we have the action plan for the next step that is reasonable and sound?
And what are the deliverables or what are we going to do in the next steps.
So those are the three things that you discuss in each of these gates.
So what's the structure or the elements of this gate process?
So as far as the input is concerned to this process or
this technique, it's the deliverables of the previous phase.
And then, maybe some plan for the next phase.
So the deliverables and all those things getting to the gate.
And then you have something called a criteria,
which is basically the questions or the metrics on which the project is judged.
So based on, the organization will set this criteria, so
that when a project goes to a gate check, they know what to expect.
And then, so that the criteria is applied, and
at the end of the gate, processed, or the gate checked or the stage gates.
You get the results of the gate review process, which could be a decision.
So whether to continue to go ahead or to kill the project.
Or to hold the project, which might be due to the funds or, maybe,
something else came up, which is higher priority.
So the committee or the organization may say that well, this is a good idea.
But we want to hold onto it right now.
Or it might be recycled, the idea that it might be moved or
merged with another project.
Or it might start a new project with a totally different view or
perspective, and so you might be recycling the idea.
Another thing that you get out of the gate process is approved action plan for
the next gate.
So during the gate process, they also review what is your next plan, and so
they approve it.
And then the last thing is, the list of deliverables and date for the next gate.
So what will be done in the next phase, and then, what will be the date for it?
So those are the gate structure and elements.
And so let's take an example, like how you could apply this phase gate or
stage gate concept in some of the models that we have learned.
Let's take a look at waterfalls.
So in waterfall model, you might be, and again like I said,
every organization will do it differently.
But, in this example, we might replace this.
So going from requirement to design, you might put a gate in between those two
to say whether after requirements we're going to check.
Come together as a team, review and see if we want to continue.
Similarly, after design, you might learn a lot of things.
So it might make sense to put another gate right there and
say do we really continue although we have invested so much?
But do we continue with the development and the testing and so on?
Or you might do, after testing, is it ready for deployment?
Then you could do another test after that based on the results,
does it really make sense to continue?
But like I said, any organization will customize it to their needs.
If you look at the incremental model,
one of the variations of the incremental model.
Again, you can just replace this with the gates.
You can replace between design and implementation with a gate.
And then, after every increment,
you could probably potentially put a stage gate there.
That should we continue with the next increment or did we achieve our goal?
Should we stop, and so on.
So you can apply these gates at different places.
If you look at the unified process that has, almost, I would say,
an inbuilt gate check after every iteration.
So after inception, you can do it then after every iteration of the elaboration,
you can do a stage check or get check.
And then similarly you can do, after each of these iterations.
And so, it's pretty straightforward in terms of applying this technique to
unified process.
And then if you look at the spiral, the step four has the inbuilt feature,
or you can say, expectation, to check whether to continue the next cycle or not.
So it has this inbuilt check of the project that's due.
Is it still in the business case, should we continue or not?
So, in summary, phase gate or stage gate is a technique to provide a percentage or
to reflect on current progress of the project.
And then decide if we need to then change our direction.
Should we continue the way we are doing or maybe even terminate or hold or whatever?
And then, every organization customizes this to their needs.
So you will hear different terms or different way they implement it.
But the basic idea is to provide this checkpoint in their software development
process.
So what are some of the pros and cons of this approach, this technique?
It's that if the poorer project or something that is not going to
return investment, return on investment will not be good on any project.
It would be quickly rejected by this process.
And then, because of this process if you do your cost and fiscal analysis, it
provides you some quantitative information about feasibility of the project.
And then also provides opportunity to validate your business case on a regular
basis.
In terms of the cons, it has a potential for
interfering with the creativity and innovation of the team.
Because now they're dependent on this third steering
committee to let their idea go forward.
And so, by providing this structure, it kind of just kills this innovation or
the idea of creativity or this desire to continue to innovate.
So, that's kind of the summary of I'm
going to just go back a minute, I think I stumbled quite a bit.
So, just do the summary again, basically.
So, in summary, phase gate or stage gate.
Stage gate is a technique to provide opportunity to reflect on current
progress.
And decide if we need to change the direction, or
should we continue the way we are doing, or terminate, or put it on hold.
And then like I said,
the organization generally customizes the stage gates to their needs.
So, if you are in any organization, you will hear different terms and
different ways to implement this.
But the basic idea is to provide checkpoints
in the various parts of your software development cycle.
So that you know that you're still in the right direction.
And so, in terms of pros and cons about this technique,
is that the pro would be that it allows you
allows the organization to have poor projects could be quickly rejected.
So, if anything is not going in the right direction, then,
instead of waiting til the end, you kill the project as soon as you can.
So at least, you save some effort or some money.
And then the cost and fiscal analysis that you do to provide,
to do the stage gate provides some quantitative information to
do the feasibility, checks our feasibility analysis of the project or product.
And then the third,
it provides opportunity to regularly validate your business case.
In terms of cons, it has a potential for
restricting the creativity and innovation of the team.
Because when you put any kind of process, it kind of demoralizes the team or
it kind of creates this barrier to innovation and creativity.
But in all, most of the organization use some kind of this checkpoint or
this technique to make sure that they are headed in the right direction.
So that's phase gates and stage gates.
