The 5-th Generation Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch Process
Robert G. Cooper · IEEE Engineering Management Review · 2022
If your organization faces new-product challenges—development projects taking too long, new products not hitting sales targets, or an overloaded development pipeline—then it is time to move to a fifth-generation system. In the 40 years since Stage-Gate was introduced, leading firms have made major improvements to their NPD gating systems; some changes are relatively simple in concepts, such as usingValue Steam Mappingto remove bureaucracy and waste, or adoptingconcurrencyandparallel processing. Iterationscan be built in throughout the development process, a series of build-and-test steps to get both feedback from customers and technical validation. Another major improvement is morefocus on the development pipelineby toughening the gates—making themgates with teethorinvestment decision points. Finally, integrating Agile into your gating systemis a major step,far larger than simply introducing some new methods and tools but has yielded very positive results for some physical-product firms.