Situation: You have a good project model / Stage-Gate model with precise steps and accurate descriptions of the information that you must provide as basis for decisions / Gate report to pass a gate and proceed to the next stage. You have collected the required information for decision making in the Idea stage for an exciting new project. You are meeting with the Steering Committee / Gate-keeper group and has just presented your report and recommended a Go!
Action: The group also felt it all sounds exciting, but is a little uncertain about risks, and asks you to go a little more in depth with the risks. They are also a little uncertain about the market assessment is valid, and therefore ask that you sacrifice a significant investment in a comprehensive study. Finally, there is little doubt about how the final product actually looks like, why they ask you to sacrifice some design money to develop some plausible sketches of the final product. You all agree that you convene another meeting when you have the information sought.
Reflection: What the decision the group has just asked is probably the main constituents of the subsequent analysis and planning phase. They have thus deferred the decision to go ahead until they know more! They think, then, that by postponing their Go they can for free get all the information they would otherwise have to invest significant amounts of time and money in getting in the subsequent phases? Sorry, this does not work in really! Information and security costs! That is why we must have the Go, so we can ensure these things!
Moral: You can not be 100% sure on a project. Projects are business decisions, and in business is nothing is given. Business is basically decisions about taking some chances and run some risks, but certaint, it will never be. Project Models is about to do the most important thing for given times in relation to the decisions to be taken. Therefore, as a decision-maker you have to realise that this stuff takes time and especially cost money. The further we go in the project model, the wiser we become, but we can never be sure, and we can never avoid wasting time and money on projects that are underway proves to be unhealthy.
The lesson: When a decision group asks such questions as described here, you should take it as buying signals. Just answer: "I can hear that you would like to know more, and it can be done. You have to just give a Go to invest ex. £ 30,000 in the next phase and then you will get answers to all your questions. What do you say? - Is it a Go so? "
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