Control Phase Tollgates Monitor and control plan – The team creates a plan that sets up how to continue to measure performance of the solutions and ensure new processes and procedures are executed correctly. Response plan – The team creates a plan to address potential problems that may arise.
Full Answer
Answer (1 of 2): The best way to get the answer to your question is to type it in Google or to read any project management manual. Most probably you will learn that Tollgate in project management is a virtual gate between the project phases. It closes one phase – if and when it is accepted as com...
Definition for Tollgate: Do I have to pay money to get through my project Tollgate? Of course not, but you do have to stop, evaluate your progress, and make sure you’re still heading in the right direction -- and accomplishing the tasks required for each step of your project.
In Six Sigma, every project comes with tollgates that act as milestones marking the pathway to success. They provide guidance for project teams, keeping them on track, within the project scope and focused on the desired outcome.
Preparation is key to a successful tollgate meeting. Team leaders should follow guidelines to ensure a tollgate meeting is effective. Include time to update attendees on changes to the charter, scope, team members, etc. Request additional resources if appropriate.
Organizations have multiple options when it comes to how to handle tollgate reviews while following DMAIC methodology, an acronym that stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. The five – phase process provides a framework for project teams to follow as they analyze current operations and develop changes to make them more effective and efficient.
Each phase of DMAIC has three tollgates. Here’s a brief overview of each, as taught in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course.
“The sponsor’s responsibility during a tollgate meeting is to provide guidance, insights, and suggestions ,” said Meissner.
Generate possible solutions – The team reviews all possible solutions to each of the critical root causes.
Implement solutions – The team puts the solution into place through an implementation plan that outlines when it will be implemented and any requirements for resources.
Every day more industries and governments are taking the tollgate approach to perform projects with excellence, and one of the reasons is that it was developed specifically to help organizations to choose the right projects, and to perform them right.
Tollgate methodology helps to make the team and the organization aware of the importance of investing time and resources in good and completed planning. It helps involve the project team and the main stakeholders in the project planning processes from the beginning. It stimulates the team to discuss and document all the knowledge areas of the PMBOK® Guide (PMI, 2008). It also helps project managers to make the project plans visible and reposition them as valuable as the technical documents are. This methodology brings the project management role to a central and influential point, such as in projects where technical issues usually monopolize the discussions.
The gates approach is fully compatible with and complements PMI ® standards, such as when setting the level of development of the deliverables of each stage. It acts from the beginning, when a great influence can be achieved with a minimum effort, linking the project with the business goals, and ensuring that what will be created will be aligned with the sponsor's expectations.
Gates discourage the tendency to slip into the next phase of a project in order to keep the team “moving forward,” hoping that missed deliverables will be completed somehow during next phase.
The gates methodology is a process of project progressive definition based on a planned and standardized evaluation at the end of each phase. A gate or tollgate is a standardized control point where the projects phase is reviewed and/or audited and approved (or not) to continue with the next phase.
The gates methodology reduces time and cost overruns during execution, mostly by reducing change requests and making risk visible (and thus, risk management essential) by requiring proper accuracy in planning, especially for scope and cost.
Another important benefit of the gates methodology is to reduce the final investment risk. The progressive nature of the development and its validation at the end of each stage ensures that the final deliverable will be aligned with the company's needs as well as with the present market conditions.
The Tollgate is a formal process that sequentially reviews and assesses your project’s progress through each of the DMAIC phases.
There is much you can learn from the Tollgate attendees. Listen to their input and feedback and incorporate it as you feel appropriate. Don’t be defensive. Except for an outlier now and then, the attendees want you and your project to be successful because it will benefit the organization, and possibly themselves.
By stopping and reflecting after each phase of DMAIC, you will prevent any detours that could slow your project down or keep it from being successful. Discovering and removing roadblocks during the Tollgate will keep you moving forward and on track.
The Tollgate review checklist will give you guidelines as to what is expected of your project at that point in time. Inconsistent or contrary project accomplishments will have a detrimental impact on the progress of your project.
A Tollgate review has saved numerous projects by realigning and revising the direction it was moving in. Although it might seem like an inconvenience for you to prepare and present at a Tollgate, it is definitely in your best interest — and that of the project — to do so.
A Tollgate review will usually take from 30-60 minutes to complete. The recommended agenda is:
Validate: Although not an official part of the DMAIC methodology, you may, about a year after you have closed your project , be asked to validate your results. You may be asked the following questions, “Is the process still in control? Are the benefits being realized?”
A DMAIC tollgate (also called a “phase-gate” or “stage-gate”) is a checkpoints allowing you to proceed through the DMAIC model. It marks your project officially progressing from one stage to the next.
Passing a tollgate is a defined moment to make changes based on your experience up to this point. Taking and acting on “lessons learned” at the end of each DMAIC phase allows your project to continually improve. Plus, they’re a good time for celebrating successes with your project team.
If the Sponsor decides that the project is NOT ready to proceed, you should look to agree exactly why not. You need to leave the meeting with total clarity. If you don’t have that clarity as to why you haven’t passed, then you probably won’t be ready to pass it next time!
To maximise the chances of successfully passing through your tollgates, you should align expectations with the Sponsor. At least before the meeting but ideally at the previous tollgate. If your Sponsor has any particular expectations, you, as Project Manager, will still have time to understand and act on these.
So if you’re working through the 5 DMAIC phases of your Lean Six Sigma retail project, you can pick up our free checklist of the key questions that you should be able to answer in each stage. Just enter your details to get access now.
5Ms and 1P: Six Major Factors That Affect The Control Tollgates... 1. Machines in the process. 2. Materials used in the process. 3. Methods in the process. 4. Mother Nature or the environment.
Two major tollgates to the last phase of DMAIC are:.. 1. Determine The Technical Method of Control. Once improvement has occurred, it is important to make sure the solutions stick over time. You base the method of technical control on the the new process throughput and the process history standardization.
2. Create The Response Plan. 1 The most important measures for the new process 2 The specifications and targets as verified by the customers of the process 3 The new data collection forms 4 The control methods chosen by the team such as control charts 5 The most notable process improvements.
Every day more industries and governments are taking the tollgate approach to perform projects with excellence, and one of the reasons is that it was developed specifically to help organizations to choose the right projects, and to perform them right.
Tollgate methodology helps to make the team and the organization aware of the importance of investing time and resources in good and completed planning. It helps involve the project team and the main stakeholders in the project planning processes from the beginning. It stimulates the team to discuss and document all the knowledge areas of the PMBOK® Guide (PMI, 2008). It also helps project managers to make the project plans visible and reposition them as valuable as the technical documents are. This methodology brings the project management role to a central and influential point, such as in projects where technical issues usually monopolize the discussions.
The gates approach is fully compatible with and complements PMI ® standards, such as when setting the level of development of the deliverables of each stage. It acts from the beginning, when a great influence can be achieved with a minimum effort, linking the project with the business goals, and ensuring that what will be created will be aligned with the sponsor's expectations.
Gates discourage the tendency to slip into the next phase of a project in order to keep the team “moving forward,” hoping that missed deliverables will be completed somehow during next phase.
The gates methodology is a process of project progressive definition based on a planned and standardized evaluation at the end of each phase. A gate or tollgate is a standardized control point where the projects phase is reviewed and/or audited and approved (or not) to continue with the next phase.
The gates methodology reduces time and cost overruns during execution, mostly by reducing change requests and making risk visible (and thus, risk management essential) by requiring proper accuracy in planning, especially for scope and cost.
Another important benefit of the gates methodology is to reduce the final investment risk. The progressive nature of the development and its validation at the end of each stage ensures that the final deliverable will be aligned with the company's needs as well as with the present market conditions.